The house fly as a disease carrier : and how controlled / by W. E. Britton, State Entymologist.

  • Britton, Wilton Everett, 1868-1939.
Date:
[1912]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The house fly as a disease carrier : and how controlled / by W. E. Britton, State Entymologist. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    THE HOUSE FLY AS A DISEASE CARRIER AND HOW CONTROLLED By W. E. Bkitton, Ph.D., State Entomologist The common house fly* has been associated with epidemics of typhoid fever so frequently during the last few years that Dr. L. 0. Howard suggests that it be called the typhoid fly. Flies carry disease germs mechanically by breeding in filth and crawling over it, and then crawling over food in kitchen and pantry. If the filth contains the causative germs of human diseases, these diseases are thus liable to be transferred to food, and persons eating it are endangered. Not only are the germs carried on the feet, tongue and hairs of the house fly, but they are taken into its digestive tract and are voided with its excre- ment, thus making fly specks positively dangerous. The house fly is worse than other kinds of flies because it is more abundant and because of its habit of visiting human food. A number of diseases are carried in this manner, the principal ones being intestinal diseases of an infectious nature, such as typhoid fever, cholera, and dysentery. Typhoid especially is liable to be spread by flies, as the bacterial germs are voided with the faeces and urine of the patient often before the disease is recognized, and sometimes long after the patient has appar- ently recovered. There are occasional cases of walking typhoid, and if one of these enters a community where flies are abundant, an epidemic may follow. Especially great is the danger in summer camps, construction camps, shore resorts, and country villages where sanitary improvements are lacking. The excreta from typhoid patients should never be exposed to flies, for if visited by flies, the disease is not only liable, but is almost cer- tain to be spread. *Musca domestica Linn.