Modes of Transfer
Hygienists assert that germs are transmitted either by direct or indirect means. The vehicles of transmission may be man himself, animals, or anything that will carry the germs from one person to another. Price says, “The most frequent and demonstrated mode of infection is by direct contact of dis-ease with the healthy, of the persons surrounding the infected one, such as physicians, nurses, etc.”
We must differentiate between the mode of transmission, or, as it is sometimes called, the mode of infection, and the channel of infection. The channel of infection is the passage through which the germs enter the body. In tuberculosis the channel of entrance might be the respiratory tract, through the skin, or by means of the digestive tract, while the mode of infection or mode of transfer might be by such means as milk or sputum.
There are two principal modes of transference: (a) direct or contact infection, (b) indirect infection. Under this second heading would be included carriers or intermediate host. Direct or contact infection is from person to person and may be accomplished through discharges from the nose and mouth or other excretions from the body. There are many dis-eases supposed to be transferred from person to person by direct contact. Such dis-ease as diphtheria, tuberculosis, scarlet fever, syphilis, gonorrhea and skin dis-eases belong in this class. It is also asserted that these same dis-eases may be transmitted from person to person by intermediate agents. For example, typhoid germs may be transmitted in fecal matter into the water supply and ingested into the body. The gonococci may be deposited upon fomites, such as bedding, and transferred to other individuals. From a chiropractic standpoint these incoördinations will be produced only when there is interference with transmission of mental impulses, preventing intellectual adaptation taking place in the body.
Indirect infection is accomplished from person to person through such means as water, food, air and soil. It is claimed by medical hygienists that dis-eases may be transferred great distances by these vehicles. However, some of the so-called pathogenic germs are short lived and will therefore not infect after any length of time.
It is affirmed by some that a person may be a carrier of a dis-ease and not himself be suffering from the dis-ease. As, for instance, there are cases on record where an individual has been a carrier of diphtheria, having the germs in his own throat and from his throat the germs have found their way into the throats of others. In other words, there were pathogenic germs in his body which were doing no harm to him, but when they entered the body of others caused dis-ease. People have been found with every imaginable dis-ease germ and yet have themselves been perfectly well. Such persons are known as “carriers.” From a chiropractic viewpoint this condition is very easily explained. In such people the transmission of mental impulses is sufficient to permit Innate Intelligence to maintain a sufficient degree of adaptation to prevent the propagation of the germs, but not sufficient to enable Innate to excrete the germs as waste material.
The course followed in preventive medicine in these cases is isolation of the individuals and the strictest sanitation. Their occupations are controlled so that they will not handle food intended for other people. In these ways danger from carriers is lessened.
Pathogenic bacteria live in the bodies of infected persons, in their secretions and excretions, and in the discharges of the body, but they are not found free in Nature. The principal vehicle of transmission is man himself. He is also the principal recipient of infection. Germs may be found in the various secretions such as those from the eye, ear, nose, throat, from wounds and in the pus from abscesses; they may be found also in sputum, urine and in the solid excretions. In these ways they may be transmitted from one individual to another. They may also be carried by animals, insects, food, milk, water, air or any other mode or vehicle. The most common mode of transference, however, is from person to person.