Ontario Provincial Board of Health Annual Report, 1922
District 7 Report, pg. 200
Ontario Government Industrial Farm
An epidemic of typhoid fever broke out at the above noted institution in the past year, nine of the inmates developing the disease, with, in one case, fatal results.
I accompanied Dr. Sparks, D.H.O., several times on inspections of this institution, while this epidemic was on. The source of the disease was undoubtedly from a carrier-inmate, who used a latrine which was improperly built, thus allowing the entry of house-flies to its contents, from there into the kitchen and dining-room, where the inmates’ food was cooked and served.
This case furnished a good example of the importance of following sanitary rules. A heap of manure had been left at the cow-barn for months—millions of flies bred in this unsanitary mess. The flies from this incubation gained entry into an unsanitary latrine, from there into the kitchen-dining rooms, which were not provided with proper screens, again showing unsanitary conditions.
The root of the entire trouble was the failure of the Institution’s water supply, thereby putting the water-closets out of business, and making the building of outside privies imperative.
Conditions in the institution were, on the whole, bad, and will remain so until a big change has been made in the buildings, ventilation, water supply and disposal of sewage.