Abstract
THE treatment and care of war wounds is essentially a bacteriological problem, as, indeed, experience in the War of 1914–18 made evident. The chief lethal micro-organisms that are found in infected wounds are Streptococcus pyogenes and the group of anaerobic bacilli which cause gas gangrene. Researches within recent years into the causation of puerperal fever have shed light upon the origin of pathogenic streptococci in war wounds; in both cases the chief source of infection is regarded as being droplets of secretion that contain these microbes and that are expelled from the throat of those who nurse and treat the patients; the measure of the risk is given in the statement that 2–5 per cent of adults harbour Streptococcus pyogenes in the throat. Suitable masks should, therefore, be worn by all those who dress war wounds.
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Control of Infection in War Wounds. Nature 146, 753 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/146753a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/146753a0