PROBi.KM 4. How We Atte?npt to Stop the Spread of Disease 



347 



MU 



Fig. 307 A Board of Health 'mspector vjakiiig a 

 test in a viilk plant. WJ^at kinds of tests does 

 be make? How may an inspector's work affect 

 your health eveii if you do not drink milk? 



(new YORK CITY BOARD OF HEALTH) 



Fig. 308 Ifi most large cities some food is sold 

 from push carts. Not all are as clean as this one. 

 What can you learn from this picture about the 

 care of food in stores or at home? (American 



MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY) 



however, it is dangerous to drink raw 

 milk unless it is especially certified to be 

 free of disease germs. Such milk is 

 marked "certified" milk. 



Carriers. Most pathogenic germs can- 

 not live outside the animal's -body for 

 more than a few hours. It was believed 

 that quarantine and isolation of patients 

 should, therefore, stop the occurrence of 

 a disease such as diphtheria. Then it was 

 discovered that a patient may keep germs 

 in his throat for some time after he is 

 well and up and about. He becomes a car- 

 rier. And what is worse you or I, right 

 now, may be carriers of diphtheria germs 

 though we have, perhaps, never had the 

 disease. We know there are carriers of 

 diphtheria, scarlet fever, and typhoid. It 

 is possible that poliomyelitis (infantile 

 paralysis) and a score of other diseases 

 may sometimes be spread bv carriers. 



The person who is known to become 

 a carrier after recovery from a disease 

 such as typhoid is registered by the 

 health officer and forbidden to work at 

 jobs that involve the handling of food. 

 Rarely does anything go wrong when 

 such precautions are taken. In a recent 

 small outbreak of typhoid in one of our 

 large cities a number of cases appeared 

 in close succession within one small dis- 

 trict. Health officers speedily traced all 

 the cases to one registered carrier and 

 an unfortunate leak in the plumbing of 

 the house in which the carrier lived. In 

 the basement of the house fruit was be- 

 ing sold. 



The carrier who has never been sick 

 with the disease is frequently not de- 

 tected. Since there are always some un- 

 detected carriers, health officers must 

 consider all possible ways in which 



