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The theory of amoebic surveys

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

H. O. Lancaster
H. O. Lancaster
Affiliation:
School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Sydney, Australia
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(i) The theory of amoebic surveys and of related types of pathological surveys is discussed.

(ii) An inequality is derived,

where X is the total number of carriers and X1, X2 are the new carriers found at the first and second examinations.

(iii) Demonstrability is defined and several theoretical distributions of it are considered.

(iv) Demonstrability is shown not to be a constant in the populations considered.

(v) The danger of extrapolation is noted.

(vi) Life-table methods are introduced to treat some well-known published series.

(vii) A criterion for the adequacy of any estimate of the total carrier rate is given. The mean demonstrability of the outstanding carriers after successive examinations must form a decreasing series.

(viii) This criterion usually shows that the method of estimating the carrier rate for Entamoeba histolytica as three times the proportion of positives at a single examination, or as the total number of positives picked up in six examinations, both give too low a carrier rate.

(ix) It is suggested that the investigation of the ‘carrier’ rate may in certain cases be merely a measure of ‘demonstrability’.

(x) Possible future lines of investigation of the problem are noted.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , September 1950 , pp. 257 - 276
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1950

References

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