The endemic diseases of the southern states . education for the willing andlegislation for the unwilling. I. If every person who has hook-worms could be treated to aradical cure the disease would be exterminated. Most of thoseseeking medical advice are so cured but there are very manywho have the disease who do not take treatment, and thereare many more who are infested but have no symptoms whichlead them to suspect it. These carriers are a greater source ofdanger than actual cases of the disease for the latter sooner orlater are compelled to take treatment, while the former rarely480 HOOK-WOR
The endemic diseases of the southern states . education for the willing andlegislation for the unwilling. I. If every person who has hook-worms could be treated to aradical cure the disease would be exterminated. Most of thoseseeking medical advice are so cured but there are very manywho have the disease who do not take treatment, and thereare many more who are infested but have no symptoms whichlead them to suspect it. These carriers are a greater source ofdanger than actual cases of the disease for the latter sooner orlater are compelled to take treatment, while the former rarely480 HOOK-WORM DISEASE do. It is impossible to force hook-worm patients to acceptcompetent treatment, and with the carrier there is the doubledifficulty of first locating him and then sterilizing him. It is,of course, the duty of every physician treating a hook-worm pa-tient to explain to him the importance of complete cure. It is,furthermore, the duty of physicians to seek out carriers and toeducate their clientele in hook-worm etiology and Fig. 92.—An insanitary privy, found too frequently on our farms. Noticehow the animals are spreading soil pollution. (Public Health Reports.) If each physician, expecially in the rural districts, would con-stitute himself health officer among his patients the hook-wormproblem would solve itself and the collateral benefits ensuing,the prevention of typhoid fever and other diseases, would bealmost incredible. As to guides in the search of carriers, residence in an endemicarea, other cases in the family or neighborhood, and a history ofground itch, must be regarded in those lacking symptoms. 482 ENDEMIC DISEASES OF THE SOUTHERN STATES In industrial concerns it would be advantageous if employeeswere periodically inspected for hook-worm infection as is donein some European mines. 2. Since it is largely through infected earth that uncinariasisis propagated it is evident that any scheme of prevention whichignores the significance of soil pollut
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