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Show INFECTED MILK CAUSESD IS E AS E One of Principal Agents of Tuberculosis Among Chil- dren During the Milk-drinking Milk-drinking Period. CHICAGO, Oct, 16. Plain doubt that tuberculosis is a "city disease" and a sharply defined theory that lub-orculer lub-orculer infected cow's milk is one of the principal agents of human infection, infec-tion, were presented to the American Public Health association convention hero today by Dr. Burton S. Rogers of New York. "Childhood is almost universally recognized as the age when the bulk of the primary human tubercular infections in-fections occur." said Dr. Rogers. "The two paramount conditions of childhood are close association with parents and tho milk dringing period. "Official records show that nearly 10 per cent of tho more than 10,000,000 hogs reaching packing houses annually annual-ly were found tubercular in some de- 1 grec. The same ratio applied to hogs1 slaughtered on farms and elsewhere I without inspection, and to animals not sent to markets would make tho annual an-nual total of Infected hogs nearly 10,. 000,000. "Most hogs are marketed around nine months of age, which means they acquired the Infection within a year. At that rate, during the ten year childhood child-hood period of a given huhian generation. genera-tion. 100,000,000 hogs would be Infected. Infect-ed. "Can human babies be joint victims of a common cause. Had most of the hogs spent parts of their lifetimes on many different farms. Instead of as a rule on one farm only, a much larger percentage of them would have shown lesions, paralleling the high percentage percent-age found In the human, the bulk of whom obtain their dairy produce from innumerable and unknown farms and 10 per cent of whom die of tuberculosis. tuberculo-sis. Is there any significance in the human and hog population centers being near tho same point with a 10 per cent' tuberculosis applicable to both? The people of this country particularly parti-cularly health and tuberculosis workers, work-ers, packers and farmers should realize rea-lize that out on the farms of this country, wherever hogs and cattle can associate in the same pastures and quarters, the hogs are testing the cattle cat-tle for tuberculosis just as though we had deliberately placed them there for that very purpose." Dr. Rogers said that if each farmer assured that the object was co-operation and not prosecution, would mark or tag each hog he sends to market with his name and address, tho full result re-sult of these "hog tests" of cattle could bo ascertained within one year. This, ho said, would save the ?30,000,000 which has been estimated as tho cost for tuberculin tests on each farm in the country, and leave that amount tp spend on aiding farm residents who may have tho disease. Expressing doubt that tuberculosis is really a city disease, Dr. Rogers said the secretary of tho inriinna Qfnt board of health had written him that out of a total population of 13,000 in Crawford county, Indiana, 2000 had died of tuberculosis within ten years. "Can such a record be even paralleled parallel-ed in the worst 'lung block' in the worst 'lung block' in the worst city speaker. "Investigation in other states might reveal even worse conditions." He explained that Crawford county has 304 square miles and that the 13.-000 13.-000 residents aro scattered oft 1SG1 farms and in twenty-one towns and villages, the largest urban center containing con-taining less than 1200 inhabitants. He added: "It is doubtful if there is a three-' story tenement in the county and if every house Is not at least ten feet from every other houso and If every living and sleeping room has not one or more outside windows. Theso are certainly not city conditions." |
