Abstract
THE annual report of the Health Organisation is contained in its recently issued Bulletin (8, Nos. 1–2, Allen and Unwin, Museum Street, W.C.1. 5s.). Prevention and treatment of malaria, cancer, leprosy, nutrition, housing and physical education, biological standardization and drug traffic are some of the subjects that are covered by the activities of the League's Health Organisation. A considerable report on rural housing and planning is contributed by M. Vignerot (France). The last article, of 260 pages, is a survey by Dr. Walch-Sorgdrager of Leptospiroses, diseases of man and animals caused by infection with minute spirilliform micro-organisms, which include infectious jaundice or Weil's disease of man and infectious jaundice of dogs. A recently differentiated epidemic disease of man, ‘mud fever’, is fully described. It occurs in regions of the Danube, Elbe and Oder which are liable to floods, though is not necessarily connected with flooded districts, and is caused by a species of Leptospira, L. grippotyphosa. The disease is an acute and severe febrile condition, but is never fatal. The natural habitat of this microbe is uncertain, as is also the problem of transmission to man. A bibliography of 70 pages completes this important article. A review designed to show how the Health Organisation functions, entitled “World Health and the League”, is also issued by the League (Messrs. Allen and Unwin. 6d.).
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Health Organisation of the League of Nations. Nature 144, 412 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144412c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144412c0