Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 April 2009
1. There can be no doubt that Ankylostomiasis has obtained a very firm hold in the coastal districts of North Queensland, and every effort should be made to arrest its spread, and if possible eradicate it.
2. Experience in other parts of the world, notably the United States and Germany, has demonstrated the great difficulty of coping with the disease, even with the most energetic of preventive measures.
3. The disease gives rise to much sickness and inefficiency especially amongst children, and although competent medical treatment is usually efficacious the most satisfactory and permanent results are to be expected in the direction of prevention.
4. The chief preventive measures are individual cleanliness and thorough and rapid destruction of night soil and deposits of faecal material.
5. In the presence of a properly organised sanitary system, intelligently utilised, there should be little or no risk of infection. It is the promiscuous distribution of excreta that is the chief source of the spread of infection.
6. If the indiscriminate deposit of faecal material be not prevented, the matter resolves itself into a problem of considerable difficulty.
7. The more commonly used disinfectants, if thoroughly employed, would render the faecal material comparatively innocuous, but their use is not less laborious than the proper removal of the faecal material and its disposal in properly constructed receptacles.
8. Common table salt has a decidedly injurious effect upon the hook-worm eggs but it requires to be brought into very intimate contact with the infected material. The process of merely sprinkling the surface is almost futile unless the salt be used in enormous quantities.
9. When mixed with faecal matter, sand promotes the development of hook-worm larvae, but when used as a covering of a certain depth it arrests development.
10. Exposure to direct sunlight of sufficient intensity kills hook worm eggs and larvae very rapidly.