HOW TO DISINFECT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 50, 23 November 1918, Page 8

HOW TO DISINFECT

GOOD AND BAD METHODS. , Some people are using disinfectants rather-lavishly and ineffectively about offices. Dr. Makgill, of the Health Department, who is a believer in tho »ood old scrubbing brush and elbow grease, says that a good plan is to go over the floor with a damp cloth soak;d in disinfectant. As to sweeping flic floors, it is good to sweep with sawdust damped with kerosene. '1 his gathers infection. ■ and is better than dry sweeping, because it does not raise dust.

AT FEATIIERSTON CAMP THE VOLUNTEER- WORKERS. The Minister of Defence paid a visit to Featherston Camp on Thursday. He informed a XJoMiKio.f reporter yesterday that he was satisfied the epidemic was well in hand at the camn, and that everything possible was being done for tho safety and comfort of the men. There were still some serious cases in hand, but the, medical officers did not expect to receive many more of. them. The number of patients in the hospitals had been reduced greatly, and scarcely any now Casw were now being received. ;|The Mii'*:tersaid the medical staff at Featherston had done very good work indei'd, and deserved greiit credit for the way in which the epidemic had been handled. The influenza had struck the camps very suddenly, and the medical officers and their assistants had been called upon to handle a very large number of serious case.s under difficult conditions. But the epidemic hud been stayed more quickly in the camps that in (he towns; Sir .Tames Allen added that most valuable assistance had been given by women of the Feathcrston district in providing foods for the patients in the camp hospital. These voluntary helpers had provided great quantity of soups, jellies, custards, etc., and had added enormously to tho comfort of tho men.

' WARNING TO GROUPS BEWARE OF EXPLOITATION. Evidence is cropping up here and there ill the district headquarters that ■people—mostly women—are seeking to impose on the generosity of tlie public in claiming ioou and comforts wHcn they are not actually in need of them througu tits ex.gencies of the prevailing epidemic. One woman was detected in an act altogether despicable tinder the circumstances. A little boy applied for bottle of beef tea, aud on being questioned, said tin lady had sent him in for it. The assistant went out with the boy. inul the latter identified the woman in the inhalation room. The woman, on being asked if she had sent the boy in, denied that she had done so, but the boy stood his ground, and; ias he was obviously telling the truth, the woman was warned that if she indulged in further fraud of the kind, police action would be taken. In another case a woman was found hanging on to the railings outside the schoolroom, and protesting that she was very ill, and should he ssnt to the' Hospital at once. The assistant hurried in to get aid from the croup captain, but ■much to his surprise, on turning to go out again with his uhief, he beheld the lroninn hopping ip the steps as lively as a cricket. On being questioned she said that perhaps she was not'a hospital case, bul: if they would provide her with a hot-water bag she would be all right. Needless to say, sho got no bag. CONTACT WITHWENZA CASES SOME EXPERT ADVICE. A little advice concerning contact with influenza eases was offered by Dr. E. H. Makgill, Chief Health Officer, yesterday. "There is a great tendency," lie said, "to get an awful scare if there has been .ft death. We have had a lot of cases in which no one will go near a place where somebody has died of influenza. The fact that a death has . occurred need not create any special nervousness on •the part of the contacts, as so much depends on the resisting power of the person. who gets the disease. The infection disappears very early in the disease. A convalescent who has been over the normal temperature for several days is fre« from infection. As with measles, it is in the early stages that the disease is infectious. I do not wish (p say the same about cases where severe pneumonia lias; occurred. "-Many people are terrified about the dead bodies, but active infection is not conveyed by them." VACCINE TREATMENT Dlt." CHaMPTALOTJP'S VIEWS. Dr. Champtaloup, speaking to a report er of the "Otago Daily Times" witli regard to the Sydney cable message to the effect that vaccine treatment of influenza had proved a decided success not only in combating the disease, but in preventing its spread, said that he did not recommend Hie ,use of vaccine as a prophylactic measure, as the disease was already very prevalent before a suitable vaccine could be prepared in Jiew Zealand, and he did not consider it advisable to use r. vaccine of the effect of which we knew relatively little in the middle of an epidemic, particularly as it took some days or even weeks for tho effects of a prophylactic vaccine to manifest itself. By this time the majority of the population had probably become infected. There was a risk in the use of _ such a vaccine lit Hie middle of an epidemic, as a person's resisting power to i'he disease might Iks temporarily lowered immediately following an injection of vaccine, yhich would possibly render him more liable to infection from outride sources. On the other hand, had n vaccine been iivnilnMo fnr uue in New Zen land Severn , wonts before tlie outbreak .he would then have strongly recommended its use as a prophylactic measure, as he believed that it would have gone a long way towards protecting, these who lispjl it. In h. ; s opinion, however, the majority of the people would not at that time have bothered iiljout .'he use of vaccine, and therefore it would have been almost futile for the Health Department to have advocated itt utt , to people who did not realise •vlint the epidemic was going to he like, and who would have nvnilpd theitiselvoof ihe opportunity to u°e it in such small numbers as to render the efforts of the health authorities almost regliuiblo. Moreover, it did not neces=iirily follow that a vaccine preparation made elsewhere, would be efficacious in dealing with tho type of influenza existing in New Zealand at present,