Page 3 Advertisements Column 6

Patea Mail, Volume I, Issue 100, 25 March 1876, Page 3

PRECAUTIONS AGAINST ?Aa SPREAD OE TYPHOID FEVER. 1 Drawn up. by William Ogle, M.A., M ; .D., Oxon., F.R.C.P. Loud,, Medi>cal Officer of Health for the combined districts of East Herts ;• and circulated by the Sanitary Authorities. * J • t - 1 '■* ' riTYPHOID, enteric, nr gastric le\cf -4- are the names -given to one and the same infectious disease, this being a fever produeinlffiymxeremeutal poisoning and almost invariably, accompanied by diarrhoea. Of all excrcmentab matter, the most poisonous is that which comes from persons themselves ill with the fever; and it is principally by means of their stools that the disease, spreads from one person to another. Tbe.poison may be taken in by breathing the ellluvia -from these discharges, or - from the privy, cesspool, or drains into which they have been emptied ; or by drinking water from wells into which they have soaked; or by swallowing particles that have adhered to clothes, bedding or other objects, and thence been accidentally .transferred to articles of food or cooking utensils. c i< P ■ Destruction of,the fever poison in the stools, the moment these leave the body, by means of disinfectants, and (inasmuch as. the .action of disinfectants is not thoroughly certain),the safe disposal of the stools themselves, are the means by which we should try to prevent the disease from spreading. . ' A Let all persons, therefore, who would keep themselves and their neighbours free from infection, observe strictly the following rules shnold the disease occur in their houses: 1. Remove at once from the sickroom. -all carpets, curtains, and other objects likely to get fouled. .. - . 2. Keep every one whose presence is not absolutely necessary out of the sick room, and by .means of open windows and open doors give the jmtieutas much fresh air as possible. ?>. Put a piece of waterproof sheeting' under the bed clothes, in the middle of the bed, so as to prevent the bed from getting soiled. ■ ' 4. Put a teacnpful of the following disinfecting fluid into abed-pan or other vessel each time before the patient uses it, and add some more immediately after:—Soda water, a gallon ; .sulphate of iron (i.c.,, copperas.),- a pound; cart bolic acid (the common impure kind), half a pint. In preparing this fluid the iron, should-first be dissolved by stirring in boiling water, and the:carbolic acid added when; the-iron is dissolved and the fluid cool. Remember that carbolic acid is a poison ; keep .the mixture therefore in a safe' place. The same fluid may be used with, great advantage to disinfect any accumulation of filth, such as a dung-pit or. cesspool. • As a general rule two: quarts; will suffice to disinfect one cubic foot of foul matter. . 5. Take care that : the discharges are thoroughly mixed with the disinfecting fluid, and then carry them,immediately into the garden or .field, and bury them in a deep trench, previously,dug for the purpose, as far as possible from any well or other water supply. On riio account let them he thrown on to a refuse heap. If the house he, in a town, and,without a garden, so that the stools: must, of necessity bo thrown down the closet, add a double allowance of the disinfectant, and take care that the emptying be done without splashing the seat, and that the closet be Hushed until basin and pan are thoroughly clean. -' ■ G. Let bed and body linen, immediately it is taken off, be put into a tub of water, to which carbolic acid has been added, in the proportion ofhajfa pint of acid to a bucket of water: Have the tub and fluid ready prepared and at hand before the linen is taken olf. , Let the linen soak 'in this for two hour's, and and then let it be actually boiled in washing, On no account must the linen be sent to a laundress without thorough previous disinfection, nor without informing her of its character, so that shemay not wash it with the linen of other persons, 7. Let the nurse observe the most scrupulous care to keep; everything clean. Let her wear a dress of washing material, as this is more easily disinfected than wool. As her hands must almost unavoidably get soiled ,in helping tho patient, let them wasli them frequently in water to which some disinfecting fluid lias been added,- and-let her take care that the water thus used,, ns well as all other slops, be emptied carefully into the garden trench.. . ■ S. When the illness is over, the bed if soiled, should be burnt; or the tick or sacking cover may be, disinfected by thorough boiling, and the flock or straw stuffing burnt. Should there, be a disinfecting oven available,the stuffing of hair mattrasses may be teased out and then disinfected by baking at » temperature of 250deg. F. .Otherwise this also .should bc : destroyed, . , 9. If fever be in your neighbourhood but not as yet in- your -house, take the following precautions to keep it out: —jDrink ho, water that is open to the. least suspicion, or, if yon can get no other, boil it before drinking. Use no closet or privy that is used by houses in which there is already fever. -Give immediate notice to the Sanitary Inspector of any nuisance in your neigh ■ bourhood, such as a stinking drain or gully, heaps of offensive refuse, and the like. -Use all your influence influence, to insist upon the proceeding precautionsbeing ' strictly , carried out ; . by , your neighbours whose houses arc already infected.