Further preliminary reports on flies as carriers of infection.

Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Further preliminary reports on flies as carriers of infection. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Although a perusal of the preceding pages will show that there were some who at a very early date looked upon the common house- fly with suspicion, it is only of recent years that “ flies ” have come to be regarded as a serious factor in the spread of infective diseases. The evidence we have sifted and ordered in these pages is obviously very unequal in value, the most important relating to cholera and typhoid fever—in both cases the evidence incrimina- ting house-flies, of which Musca domestica may be regarded as the type, appears to be quite conclusive, and these agents will have to henceforth receive the serious attention they demand at the hands of sanitary authorities. From a practical point of view it scarcely appears necessary to charge the house-fly with more misdoings, bacteriological tests having shown that they are capable of taking up a number of different pathogenic germs and of transporting them from one place to another. We regard it as certain that they convey cholera and typhoid fever, and we look forward with con- fidence to the complete demonstration that they convey the causative agents of infantile diarrhoea and of dysentery, always remembering that there are other vehicles, water, milk, &c., by which these diseases may be communicated. It should be remembered that a fly may cause relatively gross infection of any food upon which it alights after having fed upon infective substances be they typhoid, cholera, or diarrhoea stools. Not only is its exterior contaminated, but its intestine is charged with infective material in concentrated form which may be dis- charged undigested upon fresh food which it seeks. Consequently, the excrement voided by a single fly may contain a greater quantity of the infective agents than, for instance, a sample of infected water. In potential possibilities the droppings of one fly may, in certain circumstances, weigh in the balance as against buckets of water or of milk I BIBLIOGRAPHY. Abkl, R. (1899). Einige Ergiinzungen zu der in No. 5-12 dieser Zeitschrift erschienenen Abhandlung von Nuttall fiber die Rolle der Insekten bei der Verbreitung von Infektionskrank- heiten des Menschen und der Thiere. Hygienische Rundschau, Berlin, ix, pp. 1065-1070. Ainsworth, R. B. (1909). The House-Fly as a Disease Cai-rier. Journ. Roy. Army Med. Corps, XII., 485-498. Albert, H. (1905). Role of insects in transmission of disease. New York Med. Journ., LXXXI, 220-225. Aldridge, A. R. (1904). The spread of the infection of enteric fever by flies. Journ. Roy. Army Med. Corps, III, 649-651. Aldridge, A. R. (1907). House Flies as Carriers of Enteric Fever Infection, Journ. Roy. Army Med. Corps, ix, p. 558. Anderson (1908). The differentiation of outbreaks of typhoid fever due to infection by water, milk, flies and contacts. Netv York Med. Record, LXXIV, No. 22. (Not consulted.)