HOW TYPHOID FEVER GERMS ARE CARRIED
[Sidenote: How typhoid fever germs get into the system]
There are certain diseases, the germs of which get into bodies
through our mouths. That is, we eat or drink them. Some of these
diseases are typhoid fever, cholera, the summer complaints of
children, tuberculosis, and diphtheria. At present we shall learn
about the germ that causes typhoid fever, how it gets into our food
and drink, and how we may prevent the disease by getting rid of
this germ.
Typhoid fever, like all other diseases caused by germs, is caused
by one kind of germ, and one kind only. You cannot get typhoid
fever by eating cholera germs any more than you can get diphtheria
from typhoid germs.
[Sidenote: Animals free from typhoid]
So far as we know, there is no animal except man that has typhoid
fever. Since the germs of any disease must come from an animal
suffering from that disease, and as man is the only animal that
has typhoid fever, it naturally follows that the only way to get
typhoid fever is from some person who has the fever or has had it.
[Sidenote: How typhoid germs leave the body]
We know that typhoid fever germs get into the body with food, but
how do they get out? Once in a great while germs are found in the
matter that the patient vomits, or spits up, but this is a rare
occurrence, so rare that we need hardly consider it. The germs are
present in the blood of the sufferer, but other people do not get
his blood on their hands or in their food. There are two things
that come from the patient that are loaded with these germs, and
these are the urine and bowel discharges. In these two excretions
of the body are found practically all the typhoid germs that come
from the patient, and these are the causes of other infections.
In other words, it is from these two excretions that the germs get
into food and drink.
[Sidenote: How typhoid germs get into water]
How do the typhoid germs get into our food? What is done with the
excretions after they come from the body? You will probably say
that the nurse throws them into the sewer. Very true; but where do
they go when they are thrown into the sewer? The sewer must empty
somewhere, and in most instances it empties into a stream, the
water of which is used for drinking purposes.
[Illustration: FIG. 57. Pollution of a stream with sewage.]
[Sidenote: The widespread evil due to the sickness of one person]
You may think that the germs from one person would not make much
difference, but that is where you are mistaken. There is a town
in Pennsylvania of about eight thousand inhabitants, which gets
its water from a stream that flows down from the mountains. One
cold winter, while the stream was frozen, a man living on the bank
of the stream was taken sick with typhoid fever. His nurse threw
the urine and the discharges from his bowels on the ice on the
bank of the creek. When the ice melted, the typhoid germs in the
discharges found their way to the stream that furnished drinking
water to people farther down, and in a very short time there were
over one thousand cases of typhoid fever in that town. Before the
ice melted there had not been a single case of typhoid, and every
one of the thousand cases came from the water into which had been
allowed to flow the discharges from one man with typhoid fever. You
see what germs from one person may do.
[Sidenote: How long typhoid fever germs live in a stream]
Sometimes people say that a stream purifies itself every few miles.
It does purify itself of some things, but disease germs live from
twenty-five to thirty-five days in water, and a stream flows a long
way in thirty days.
[Sidenote: The pollution of streams with sewage]
Sometimes we hear people say that it is safe to put sewage into
a certain stream, because no town uses that stream for drinking
water. But of this they can never be sure. Not long ago certain
people said that the water from the river which flowed through
their town was used only by two dairymen and a vegetable gardener,
and therefore there was no danger in running sewage into the
stream. Yet the dairymen and the gardener sold all their produce
in that very town. The townspeople never considered that the water
into which they ran their sewage was used by the dairymen for
washing their milk vessels (and perhaps for diluting the milk), and
by the gardener for washing his lettuce and other vegetables. Thus
the germs of disease were brought directly back to the town.
Do not think that you are safe in polluting a stream with sewage
because no town uses the water from that stream. The individual on
the farm is entitled to protection just as much as the individual
in the town. Always remember that when you pollute with disease the
water used by the farmer, he may bring that disease back into the
town with the produce of his farm.
No sewage, no matter how small the amount, should ever be
permitted to go into a stream until all the disease germs it
contains have been killed. This can be done, though it will cost
something; but we cannot get rid of disease germs without work, and
work cannot be done without being paid for.
There are other ways of scattering typhoid germs besides running
sewage into streams. Sometimes the nurse does not throw the
discharges from a typhoid fever patient into a sewer at all, but
into a closet vault. Remember how the material from a closet vault
goes through open ground into a well, and you will understand what
happens. The germs get into the well, and the whole family may then
have typhoid fever.
Let us suppose that the nurse did not throw the discharges either
into the closet or into the sewer, but carelessly threw them out
on the ground behind the house, where, as it was winter time, they
froze as hard as rocks. It does not seem to hurt typhoid germs
in the least to be frozen; when they get warm again they are as
lively as ever. Let us suppose these particular germs lay there all
winter, but in the spring when everything melted the germs were
still alive and ready to spread disease. It happened that they did
not get into the well or into the milk, but they did get on your
food, and made you ill with typhoid fever.
[Sidenote: How flies carry typhoid germs]
How did the germs get to your food? About the time that the germs
were thawed out, and were beginning to double in number every
hour or two, along came a fly and thought that spot an attractive
one for a lunch. Accordingly he walked over this mass of filth,
collecting a supply of germs on his feet, and then came in and
tracked them over your bread and butter or other food.
[Illustration: FIG. 58. Flies crawling on the edge of the glass or
falling into the milk leave germs that cause disease.]
[Sidenote: How typhoid germs get into milk]
That is how you got the fever; but the trouble did not stop with
you. When you fell sick, your father thought it was time to clean
the yard, but he was not very careful what he did with the dirt,
including the typhoid fever discharges which the nurse threw out on
the snow during the winter. There was a low place in the barnyard
and there he dumped the dirt. One of the cows thought this fresh
pile of dirt would make a comfortable place to lie down in. The
next morning the milkman milked her without first washing her sides
and udder, and hundreds of little particles of dirt, each one
loaded with germs, fell into the milk. The milk from all the cows
was mixed together, and by the time it got to town these germs had
grown into many thousands. Some of the people who drank the milk
became ill with typhoid fever and wondered afterward where they had
taken this disease.
[Sidenote: Why the recovered patient is dangerous]
The discharges from a typhoid fever patient contain typhoid germs
not only while the disease lasts, but for many months after the
patient is well. In some cases they are present for years after the
illness is over.
[Sidenote: The story of the careless nurses]
Here is a story about typhoid fever that illustrates the importance
of washing and boiling everything that comes from a sickroom. A few
years ago there was an epidemic of typhoid fever in a certain town.
One of the hospitals was very much crowded, and it became necessary
to employ several extra nurses. All the nurses knew the importance
of washing their hands after handling the patients, and the old
nurses had seen so many bad results from failure to observe this
rule that they were very careful. Three of the new nurses, however,
thought it a great deal of trouble to be washing their hands all
the time, so more and more they neglected this important duty. The
result was that all three of these girls got typhoid fever and
died. They paid the penalty for neglecting the duty that they well
knew they should have performed.
Typhoid fever can be wiped out by attention to neglected
details--that is, by disinfecting discharges before throwing them
away; by disposing of excretions only in places that are made for
them; by adding lime to the closet vault every day to kill any
germs present; by making the closet in such a way that flies cannot
get into it; and by not permitting sewage to enter any stream until
all the disease germs have been killed. All these things can be
done. It will require a little work; but had you not rather take
a little extra care than run the risk of catching or spreading
typhoid fever?
=Questions.= 1. How do typhoid fever germs get into the body? 2.
What is one source of these germs? 3. How do these germs leave
the body? 4. Name several ways by which typhoid germs in a stream
may get into foods. 5. How do flies carry typhoid fever germs? 6.
How do these germs get into milk?
=Remember.= 1. Typhoid germs come from people who have typhoid
fever; they are found in the urine and bowel discharges. 2. No
one should ever answer Nature's calls except in a place provided
for that purpose. 3. No sewage should be allowed to go into any
stream until all the germs in it have been killed. 4. Disease
germs will live in running water fully as long as they will in
still water. 5. The discharges from a single person may infect a
whole city. 6. When typhoid fever germs get into milk, they grow
very rapidly; hundreds of people have been given typhoid fever by
drinking the milk from a dairy where there was a single person
sick with this disease. 7. People who have had typhoid often
carry the germs for several months after they are well.