Manhattan Trichinosis

One of the most treacherous of major diseases, trichinosis, is caused by eating underdone pork in which larvae of the hairlike worm Trichinella spiralis dwell. Trichinosis, with its severe intestinal pains and high temperature is rarely diagnosed, more often confused with typhoid or rheumatic fever. Although public health officials have long known that the U. S. has a higher incidence of trichinosis than any other country in the world,* even the efficient Public Health Service did not publish until last year the astounding fact that an estimated 16,000.000 persons in the U. S. are infected with trichinae.

Last week Professor Thurlow Christian Nelson, head of Rutgers University's zoology department, bluntly told New York and New Jersey health officials that the Greater New York area "has probably the highest incidence of trichinosis in hogs and in humans to be found anywhere in the world." Next in rank are Boston and San Francisco. Many of the cases are caused by consumption of improperly cooked frankfurters and hamburgers which are made of mixed pork and beef, said Dr. Nelson. "The average 'hot dog,' " he explained, "is barely warmed through before being slapped into its mustard bath in the yawning roll, while rare hamburgers are preferred by many persons."

Dr. Nelson recommended that: 1 ) "pest hole . . . piggeries" where animals are fed infected garbage be cleaned up; 2) all pork and pork products be thoroughly cooked.

* Not fear of trichinosis but simple tabu was responsible for ancient Jewish laws against eating pork. Reason behind the tabu, say modern anthropologists, was that nomadic Jewish tribes could not keep swine, which are "sedentary" animals.

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