PRECAUTION—SCARLET FEVER

New Zealand Mail, Issue 13, 22 April 1871, Page 4

PRECAUTION—SCARLET FEVER

De. Halley writes to the " Tuapeka Times" on the above subject, and for the benefit of our readers we quote from his letter:— "Perhaps the chief thing a mother should do is to hnow whether a child has scarlatina. For ' her behoof I quote Dr. Churchill; —'The earliest symptoms which manifest themselves are general uneasiness, lassitude, depression, aching in back and limbs, rigors, loss of appetite, and thirst. Soon afterwards, stiffness and pain in throat, occasionally nausea and vomiting, always pains in the loins, headache, and drowsiness.' If these symptoms appear, especially if a rash appears, the throat becomes swollen, I should advise that means be. taken to abate the fever and isolate the patient.. Let us suppose that a child is living in a small house of two or three rooms, and showing some of the symptoms as described; let that child be as completely isolated as possible ; let the weak, solution of carbolic acid, and all intercourse between that house and others be tabooed. Kind friends and neighbors say, VOh, poor Mrs.So-and-So has three children down with the fever—let us see, can we do something for her ?' This is one fruitful cause of spreading scariet> fever without really doing any good. Again, a child is recovering from scarlet fever; the old skin is peeling off, and the mother congratulates herself that the child is better. She calls in her neighbours, and kills the fatted calf, * For this my child, which was dead is alive.' Fatal mistake! The very old skin in countless, infinitesimal doses of poison is floating through the air, settling on Madam's cap, mistresse's coat, and surely carrying scarlet fever home. After the eruption and all the symptoms seems to the parents past, the child should be held in quarantine at leastva fortnight. There is nothing again so liable to spread scarlet fever as the clothes of persons suffering from that disease; in all cases, if not destroyed, all bedclothes,, &c, should be subjected to boiling heat at least. As many of your readers may be unaware of the properties of carbolic acid, and as several have asked me what is the best disinfectant and destroyer of the scarlatina virus, I should recommnd carbolic acid in certain proportions. I should recommend that all rooms in which children are suffering from scarlatina should be sprinkled several times daily with this solution; and in fact this cheap prophylactic might easily supersede the use of camphor,, of which I hear several ladies have been laying in stock. Let me tell them it is a perfectly useless material." , ",'