Transmission of Incitants of Enteric Disease by Unsterile Equipment Used for Administering Fluid by Rectum

Few reports of the transmission of incitants of typhoid and other enteric diseases by rectum have appeared in the literature. Hervey1in 1929 published an interesting description of an outbreak of typhoid in a hospital in which apparatus for the Harris drip had evidently been the vehicle for the transmission of typhoid bacilli. Two similar instances have come to the attention of the Division of Laboratories and Research of the New York State Department of Health. A number of years ago in an investigation of three hospital patients with paratyphoid fever, a study was undertaken of the equipment used for the administration of enemas. Catheters, rubber tubing and funnels were selected from among the supply understood to have been cleaned and ready for use. Laboratory examinations demonstrated that the catheters and tubing had not been properly sterilized. Bacteria of the type found as the result of fecal contamination developed