The Omaha guide., 1946-10-12
THE ROAD TO HEALTH
UNDULANT v


BY r. StiIlmon Smith, M. D.
Chairman, executive board Georgia
State Medical and Pharmaceutical
Association Macon, Georgia
Mrs. Alice Brown had had q
difficult winter. Her husband was
still In the army and her two chill
dren seemed to catch every child
hood disease that year. .whooping
cough, measles, chicken pox and
then mumps.
The strain of taking care of the
children through one siege after
another told on her and we we're
all glad when she decided to take
the children and spend the summer
with her mother in the country.
We thought it would do her as
much good as it would the young
sters.
So it was a great disappointment
to all of US when Mrs. Brown came
back to town looking worse than
she had when she went away. A
few days after her return I ran
into her on the street and she told
me she was so tired and listless
that she thought something must
be wrong and she was coming by
to see me at the office soon. I
urged her to do so and suggested
perhaps she should have a thor
ough physical examination.
About a wee klater she did come
to the office. She said the night
before she had had chills and fe-
yer followed by sweating and Sc
we're pain in her arm. She thought
perhaps she had arthritis. In an
swer to my questions, she said she
thought she had been running a
temperature, off and on, for sew
eral weeks and that she always
seemed to be exhausted.
The symptoms Mrs. Brown de-
scribed might point to any one of
a number of illnesses. The pain in
her arm might mean arthritis.
Malaria might be suspected from
the chills and fever. The tired feel
ing with fever and night sweats
made n think of some general in
lection coming on over a period
of weeks, such as perhaps tuber-
culosis.
Obviously, the first thing to do
was to give Mrs. Brown a COM
plete physical examination. This in
Guided a chest X-Ray which show
ed that her lungs we're sound so
she did not have tuberculosis. And
other tests eliminated the possibi-
lily of malaria, arthritis and rheu-
matte fever.
There were other diseases which
1 had suspected Mrs. Brown might
have. Of the special tests I made
n showed that she had undulant
fever. so named because the fever
rises and falls, comes and goes.
Now death rarely results from
undulant fever, but it is a very
mean disease. 1t causes the patient
great pain and suffering and is
stubborn to cure. Sometimes with
proper treatment, the disease does
clear up in a few weeks. Then
again, even with good care the pa
tient may suffer recurring attacks
of undulant fever for years. At
tacks of fever may last a few hours
or several days. They cause great
pain and leave the patient COM
| pletely exhausted.
I told Mrs. Brown that she must
go to bed and stay in bed and
instructed her to drink quantities
of liquids. No medicine has proved
to be a certain cure for undulant
fever. There is a vaccine which
has been effective in some cases
but even with this treatment rest
is essential.
Undulant fever, OF brucellosls,
which is it's medical name is trans
mitted to people through animals.
It is most often found in cows,
goats and hogs. People may get
the disease by drinking raw milk
from an infected COW or by hand
ling an animal which has the di-
sease.
Naturally, I wanted to know
how Mrs. Brown got the disease.
She told me that while she was
in the country she had drunk raw
fresh milk. I got in touch with the
officer of health in the county
where she had been and his invest
igation led to the discovery of a
cow infected with the disease.
This cow had supplied the milk
Mrs. Browns mother used. And as
strange as it may seem, Mrs.
Brown was the only person who
got undulant fever, although her
mother and children had also
drunk milk from the same COW.
But undulant fever is like that.
Mrs. Browns experience brought
home to me nee more how dan
gerous it is for people to drink
raw milk. When milk is pasteuri-
zed the germs which cause such
diseases as undulant fever are
killed. Un-pasteurized milk is a
health hazard. For their own pro-
lection people should always try
to obtain pasteuriZed milk for
drinking and for cooking purposes.
TT pAV~ IN