Bread as a Vehicle for Conveying Diphtheria
At a recent meeting of the Académie de Médecine of Paris, Dr. René Moreau, health physician at Sens, reported a small epidemic of diphtheria traced to a common source, a baker who transmitted the infection along with his bread sometimes to persons whom he did not see. This epidemic attacked eleven persons and caused four deaths. It was not restricted to a single commune, but extended to three at a distance of from two and two fifths to three and three fourths miles. This spread was all the more surprising since diphtheria is not frequent in either of the three communes, and has not been mentioned since 1905. Altho several bakers furnished bread throughout the affected districts, all the patients, without exception, were patrons of the same baker, whose wife and son were the first attacked. The woman had contracted diphtheria when on a trip to a district where there were at the time several cases of the disease. After the bread was taken from the oven, it was placed for a time in the bakery, which connected with the sleeping-room of the baker's wife and son. Disinfection of the bakehouse and the houses of the patients put a stop to the epidemic. Altho this manner of spreading disease may be rare, says the Journal of the American Medical Association, it is worthy of consideration when an epidemic springs up among persons who have no apparent mutual relations, and when no other cause can be discovered.