The relation of Sewage Disposal to the spread of Helminth Infections in British Guiana

Abstract

Intestinal infections with parasitic worms are wide-spread in the Tropics. It is estimated that half the population of the World is infected with hookworms. Infection is propagated by contamination of the soil with the bowel discharges which contain the eggs of these parasites and prevention depends upon the adoption of a system of sewage carriage which ensures the safe disposal of the distribution of these eggs. The various methods of sewage disposal now operating in British Guiana and elsewhere in the tropics are adaptations, with few or no alterations, of schemes originally introduced to meet conditions prevailing in temperate climates. Prior to the visit of the Filariasis Commission of the London School of Tropical Medicine to British Guiana in 1921 the fate of the eggs of the hookworm and of other parasites in the system has not been scientifically studied.