Richmond times-dispatch. [volume], July 11, 1915, Image 42

About Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current

Image provided by: Library of Virginia; Richmond, VA

                
" Microbe Carriers^TheNewly Discove
People Who Are Fountains of Germs, Scattering Disease and Death All
Their Lives?And the Problem of What to -Do With Them.
AVERY worthy member of a California church contributed a huge
pan of baked spaghetti to a church snpper, and ninety-three per
sons were stricken with typhoid fever. This woman had never
had typhoid fever in her- life. Typhoid fferrffe lived in her* bat did not
infect her?she was what physicians have lately discovered and now call
a "carrier."
In Germany, in England and In New York similar wholesale infections
have been traced to a "carrier." At this moment the New Yoris Board
of Health has made a prisoner for the second time the famous 'Typhoid
Mary." Twice has this woman spread a trail of disease and death from
her cooking, although "Typhoid Mary** herself has never had typhoid.
And there is no known way to find the fountain-head of these deadly
germs in Mary and put an end to them.
And, beside# "typhoid carriers," there are now known to be scarlet}
fever, diphtheria and other carriers. Any worker In a dairy, any cook 07
helper or dishwasher in a hotel or restaurant or steamship or dining can
or your own cook may be a carrier.
The problem confronting health authorities is a difficult one. Is if
possible to examine everybody who has anything to do with cooking? And
when a "carrier" is foynd, what then? Should a "carrier" be imprisoned
for life, Where he or she cannot menace the health of the community?
By
SOME ten years ago a new one?If we may use a
sporting expression?was put over on the science
of preventive medicine. TIiIb was the typhoid
earriei^-a person who may or may not have bad
typhoid fever; a person, Indeed, apparently In perfect
health, -who could harbor the germs of typhoid fever
and Infect other people with them. For example:
A baker's apprentice?this was in southwest Ger
many?died of typhoid fever. Then the doctor set to
J&gurlng out how this patient had got his fever. Here
we must understand that typhoid la, like cholera and
dysentery, an "Ingestion Infection'*?that Is, the only
way you can get typhoid Is through having swallowed
~ and drink that has contained the typhoid germs.
John B. Huber, A. M., M. D.
Though typhoid la a general disease and affeots the
whole body, tho main parts affected are the 41s68ttre
organs and apparatus, especially the gall bladder and
the Intestines, in which the germs multiply and from
which the germs called also Che typhoid bacilli are
emitted.
Wei), on Investigation, it was found that this baker's
wife had typhoid some years before, since which Al
ness practically every one of that baker's apprentices
had come down with "some kind of digestive dis
turbance" soon after his apprenticeship began. An
examination of the baker's wife?all this was, of
course, several years after she had had typhoid?by
the health authorities resulted In the discovery that
She was a typbdld fever carrier. That is. although
healthy, enormous colonies of typhoid bacilli wers
constantly developing In her body. The baker's wife,
however, would not take the simple precautions the
doctors directed. She declared that the apprentices
had been taken tU because she fed them with too rich
food.
It is by such perversity that stupid people claim
they have the right and title to be a menace to the
reat of the community. It has been well said about
euch people that "a rogue is always much easier to
deal with than a fool." It was so simple?the advice
which this malign woman would not take. Simply to
keep her hands clean, and especially before handling
food that others would have to eat Soon after her
examination a tenant in her house died, also of .typhoid
fever, and later another case was attributed to her.
Three victims, not counting those apprentices who had
suffered from "too high living," and all because this
woman refused to keep her hands clean.
in another Instance four cases of typhoid were
traced to a typhoid carrier who had had the disease
forty years before. Think of ltt Forty years before I
Then there was the manager of an estate who was
found to be a typhoid carrier. This man had suffered
from typhoid ten years before. And during those ten
years there had been sixteen cases of the disease on or
near the estate- It was practically certain this man
ager had been the source of those cases.
Many milk-borne typhoid cases are due to typhoid
bacillus carriers engaged in dairying?people working
in that chain which has so many hidden links In its
course, from the cow, through the dairy, the milk
trains, the city handlers, the domestics, to the con
sinner's Upa As for Instance: A number of typhoid
eases occurred among employes at a particular dairy
and among the consumers of that dairy's milk. Four
teen of those people were found to he typhoid carriers.
One of them, a woman employe at the dairy, had had
typhoid seventeen years before. Here was evidently
the origin of the whole trouble. Drs. Bolduan and
Noble, of the New York City Health Department, some
three years ago discovered a typhoid carrier of forty
six years standing to whom a large outbreak In milk
borne typhoid fever was traced.
Hundreds of like cases have since been found, In
both sexes. In many Institutions, in many communities.
More Women Than
Men Typhoid Carriers
More women than men typhoid carriers have been
traced. Possibly there sre not reslly more women
thus affected. It may be there only appssr to be
tnofe, because the chief danger of euch infection lies In
handling fobdstuffs, as by cooks and waitfesRee. Be
sides. women are more prone to gallstone diseases, and
the gall bladder has been found the chief factory of
typhoid germ production in the human body, although
other parts of the digestive cankl manufacture them.
Thus recently a woman typhoid carrier submitted to
have her gill bladder operated on, and no typhoid
germs were found in that organ, and yet she was a
carrier of virulent typhoid germs. The German doo
tors, who are permitted by their Government to be
much more thorough than we are, found that of 450
female typhoid carrier 314 were hausfrauen (persons
who. handle food, cooks, boarding house k'eepers and
so on), while fifty-six were domestic seeyants.
The classical case is that of the far famed Typhoid
Mary, whose case became protolnent several years
ago, when she sued the New
York City Department of Health,
which had her confined for three
years on North Brother Island.
Her suit was unsuccessful. She
was then forty years old. And
fhe then deblared she had never K&d typhoid fever or
any other dangerous disease.
Typhoid Mary's case, the Heatth Department/found,
went back to 1906, when there occurred an alarming
spread of typhoid at Oyster Bay. Six out of eleven
members of a family where Mary was cook had been
stricken with this very serious disease. Dr. 8oper, for
the Health Department, made a very thorough in
vestigation, which we cannot detail here, until he
focussed his scientific eye on the fact that the family
had changed cooks about three weeks before the fever
began. Then he investigated Mary Mallon's record,
and found that she had been employed In a home
where there had been four members of the family and
seven servants, and that within a month .of Mary's
taking charge of the kitchen four of the servants were
111 with typhoid. In 1903 Mary was blessing, lo the
same way, a family of nine at Dark Harbor. Me. Of
these nine seven very shortly became typhoid cases.
In all, though Dr. Soper traced but fragments of her
history during ten veara, he laid at her kitchen door
twenty-six typhoid fever cases
"Typhoid Mary9
Would Not Listen to Reason
**" then, probably still la, a robust woman,
weighed 190 pounds and it took five policemen to get
her to North Brothers Island. After three years she
was released on hef promise that she would not again
take a place as a cook. She did not keep the promise,
and Is now again under observation after having
caused an epidemic In a charitable institution where
she had been hired as a cook. The trouble with her
was she would not liaten to reason any more than
would that baker'a wife. There ere those who say, and
with considerable Justice, that she should never have
been freed until she was proved to be no longer a
menace, no matter how many years that would have
taken.
"Typhoid Mary" was an Ignorant woman, but there
?re plenty of well educated, highly Intellectual people
who, when it comefe down to <lt, have no more sense
than she showed.
It has been estimated that from 4 per cent up of
typhoid fever sufferers continue to shed the typhoid
bacilli for indeterminate periods. And there are other*
who shed those germs who don't appear to have had
this Infection: say they have not had It; certainly have
not been abea on that account.
First?The doctors make three classes of typhoid
carriers. The acute carriers, who have had the dis
ease and continue to discharge the germs not longer
' than six weeks after convalescence?that Is. after com
plete recovery.
Second, the chronic carriers, who may or may not
have had'the dlsesae, but who keep on discharging the
germs Indefinitely. Those who have not had the dis
ease are called the symptomless cases, and they are
called lhtermediate carriers, or, as tho German doc
tors say?take a long breath here?the Typhusbaall
lenswischentraeger.
And, third, there are the temporary carriers, who
have never had typhoid at all, or who may have, per
haps, been "walking cases." but who discharge the
germs for a short period, then are free -of them for
a time and then again shed them. It has been com
puted that something like one in every thousand of
us Is a typhoid carrier, whether we have had tho
disease or not.
Obviously, then, it Is a difficult proposition to pre
vent the spread of typhoid fever by the typhoid bacillus
carriers. Surgery, as we have seen, does not avail,
because other parts of the digestive tract than the
gall bladder may contain tho germs, and one cannot
have the' whole of bis internal organs removed and
live. Investigators with bacterial vaccines have had
some fair results, but far from good enough for such
means to be successfully or universally applied.
There remains then the expedients of segregating
the typhoid carrier, as Is done In the case of leprosy?
and, Indeed, the carrier is more of a menace than the
leper?or, what In effect would be the same thing, to
force him into constant cleanliness or to restrict his
occupation in such a way as to bring his harm-makirig
down to a minimum. This last expedient, as will be
seen later, is already in force iq some districts.
Against the efficacy of the segregation idea there can
be nothing urged. The great obstacle to carrying It
out Is. of course, a sentimental one, If we choose to so
designate the well nigh universal feeling that causes
for isolation of a man from his kind
ought not to be lightly multiplied
Such segregation Would be for most
carriers solitary Imprisonment for life.
But It would not be necessary to
confine typhoid carriers If they would
only understand and ofoserve the sim
ple precautions they should take '
qrder that the health and lives
Others shall not be endangered
them. The activities of typhoid car
riers must be so restricted that they
shall neither Infect food nor their sur
roundings. In essence, all they have
to do Is to be careful about their
In
of
by
Sclentlflo
Served as
Thermomete:
Bubbling Mi
from the
Cultures
Toi
These Microbe Carrier*,' Almost AhvaysPerfectlyHea'lU^r^rbtfDaE^^
"Season" with the Germa of Deadly Bissau Dropping, Indeed, Death Into the Cooking Vessels.1
It Is Then That They Unwittingly
cleanliness. They m
whenever posslljle In i
doctor will give all
wash the hands *o tl
and'how properly to
The chief problem <
the 'carriers, so as t
This does not necei
measles or scarlet t
given time?a fortnic^
no longer a menace.
Health Departi
to Segregate
According to a regi
ment of Health, any
disease germs of
fever and other cont
to the special rules
partment of Health.
And anybody can s<
this disease carrier bl
following Is quoted froi
authoritative book.
Health"* "The legal t
the community as aga
Some considerable ques
be recognized, howevej
is not properly quaraq
discharges are permit!
tlon (disinfection), an
to no consideration if hi
receive Infection from 1
carrier to be sterilised
As we have seen wltl
are three kinds of g
chronic and the tempt
carriers would be dan
p^ullar natural hlstorj
ever, we can in genen
carriers are people whl
'disease and who dlscha
after convalescence; tB
harbor and to dlscharfl
or years, in fact, indefl
rlers are those in goo
charge germs for brief,
with periods when they
And there are "am
dyseintery ? dangerous
are so likely to spread
let fever, diphtheria an<
cases, be so mild as t<
may not themselves rea
school, ride ^n the stred
pec ting, at the desk, in
keep at t^elr usual wJ
handle our food. And ij
one of the most dlfflcui
Icine.
Why do not all those'
diseases whose germs tlj
tlon no doubt occurred
discusJhig typhoid feve
takes two people to ma
agencies to make an
germ; second, the wea
that predisposes our org
of the germ. If your bi
good health you may n<
germs In your system. ?
germs of which you < I
you may carTy these t
being run down, succu^
same germs. Your 4>od
these germs; your neigh
8inoe the fact of g?r
and since it has been sta
sciously or unconsclousl
many practical difficult!
only be detected by p&i
Clone. And then, when t
the question of control.
Fortunately, in most !
ee'eessary. "Sanitary V
to say. it Is enough to
they are obeying iyati
sense and are reasonabl
of giving disease to the!
keep scrupulously and U
os who have the civic
an enormous deal by t
health authorities.