The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1935-06-13

upon the ground nearby. The chain by
which infection reaches the individual
must be broken by providing a safe
means of disposing of human excre-
ment.
The Milk Route
Universal attention to measures for
the protection of milk supplies is more
recent. The opportunities for the con-
tamination of milk are about as eX-
tensive as for the contamination of
water. Milk may become contaminated
through handling by carriers, the use
of contaminated water in rinsing milk
utensils and the carriage of infectious
excreta to the milk by flies.
Due to more careful attention to
regulations of the production of milk
and the growing practice of pasteuri-
cation, milk-borne epidemics Of the ex-
creta-borne diseases are occurring
with less Frequency. However, one of
the largest outbreaks of typhoid fever
in recent times is belived to have re-
suited from raw milk through the use
of contaminated water obtained from
a polluted stream.
The Food Route
Occasional instances of epidemics
due to food infections are observed.
They are, however, infrequent and,
with the exception of raw shell-fish,
are usually identified with commun-
ity picnics, church socials and similar
community social affairs in which
some carrier of the disease has helped
to prepare the food,
The fact that little typhoid fever
now occuh in large cities where
there is satisfactory disposal of ex-
creta and the water and milk supplies
are good, but where many opportuni-
ties for food infection might exist,
seems to indicate that the danger
from this source of infection in stores
and eating places is slight as COM
pared with other means of disease
transmission.
The Fly Route
Food most commonly becomes in
fected in the home by flies which
have access to exposed human excreta
containing the live organisms of dis
ease. Flies breed and feed in this in
fictitious excreta, carry it and deposit it
upon food.
Excreta-borne disease thus trans
nlitted does not appear in epidemic
form but occurs in sporadic, unre-
lated cases. 1t is most prevalent in
the warmer months when flies are
most numerous and most active. In
communities where sanitary disposal
of eXcreta is not practiced, the preva-
lence of excreta-borne disease is def
initely influenced by the density Of
population. Studies in Alabama by
Leach and Moxey, in Tennessee by
Milan and Sibley, and in North Carroll
ma by Miller, definitely substantiate
this premise. In villages and the un-
sanitated portions of towns and cities
the infectious excreta in a single in
sanitary privy may endanger hundreds
of people, while usually only a single
household and its guests are endan-
gered by an insanitary privy at an
isolated farm house.
In the prevention of the epidemic
occurrence of eXcreta-borne diseases.
therefore, sanitary disposal of human
excreta in towns and villages is equal
in Importance to the improvement of
public water supplies.
In the many small towns and parts
of our larger towns the privies are a
disgrace. In the rural sections we often
find shallow dug or driven wells with a
dirty open privy nearby. Such condi-
tions are not desirable and should not
be tolerated. Just as long as we are
our neighbours excretions, just so long,
and no longer, we will have typhoid
fever.
In further support of this subject,
records for 1888, of the Bureau Of
Vital Statistics, Maryland State De-
partment of Health, show SO deaths
from typhoid fever and 321 deaths
from diarrheas and enteritis.
Therefore, in order to free Maryland
from its present hazardous and dis
graceful conditions, and to help make
the community sanitation program a
Ill