Principles of Public Health: A Simple Text Book on Hygiene, Presenting the Principles Fundamental to the Conservation of Individual and Community HealthTuttle, Thomas Dyer
Science
Principles of Public Health: A Simple Text Book on Hygiene, Presenting the Principles Fundamental to the Conservation of Individual and Community Health
Tuttle, Thomas Dyer
Public health
After the worm gets through the skin, it is taken into the blood
and carried to the lungs, and from there it finds its way to
the throat and is swallowed. It makes no difference whether the
hookworm is swallowed or enters the body through the skin; it
finally reaches the intestinal canal, where it then makes its home.
Sometimes thousands of these worms are found in a single person,
and each one of them entered the body through the mouth or through
the skin. The worms do not multiply in the body, and the eggs they
lay never hatch until after they have left the body.
[Sidenote: How it affects the patient]
When the hookworm gets into the intestinal canal, it fastens itself
to the wall and sucks the blood from it, at the same time giving
off a poison that enters the blood of the victim. The loss of
blood and the effects of the poison soon cause the person in whose
body these worms are living to become weak, pale, and thin. He is
not able to do much work, if any, and the result is that people
suffering from this disease are often called lazy. They are not
lazy; they are sick, and many of them die.
[Sidenote: How hookworm disease can be prevented]
All this sickness and all these deaths might be prevented simply
by the proper disposal of human excreta. No human excreta should
ever be put anywhere except into a properly constructed sewer or
properly constructed privy. If this rule were always observed, both
hookworm disease and typhoid fever would be abolished.
[Sidenote: Where amoebic dysentery prevails]
Amoebic dysentery is another disease that is confined almost
entirely to tropical and subtropical climates, though cases
sometimes occur in colder regions.
[Sidenote: How it is spread and how it may be prevented]
This disease, like typhoid fever, is caused by a germ that leaves
the body with the bowel discharges. The germ makes its way into
the body in the same way that the typhoid germ enters; that is, it
is taken in with food or drink. The various means by which this
germ gets into our food are the same as those by which the typhoid
germ gets in; and the precautions that will prevent the spread of
typhoid fever will also prevent dysentery. Amoebic dysentery kills
a great many people in warm climates, though it does not kill as
many as does typhoid fever. If it does not cause immediate death,
it often leaves the patient very weak and sickly for months or
years.
=Questions.= 1. In what climates are hookworm disease and amoebic
dysentery commonly found? 2. In what respects do they resemble
typhoid fever? 3. How does the hookworm enter the body? 4. Where
do the hookworm eggs hatch? 5. How can hookworm disease be
prevented? 6. What other diseases can be prevented by the same
precautions?
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