Page 4 Advertisements Column 4

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 106, 15 April 1876, Page 4

PRECAUTIONS AGAINST THE SPREAD OF TYPHOID FEYJ£ h Drawn np by William Oglr. M.A - , M.D., Oxom, F.R.C.P. Lend., Medical Officer of Health for the combined districts of East Herts ; and circulated by the Sanitary Authorities. TYPHOID, enteric, or gastric lever are the names given to one and the same infections disease, this being a fever produced.by excrcmental poisoning and almost invariably accompanied by diarrhoea. Of all excremental matte]’, 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. The poison may lie 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 o.’vr obi nets, and thence been accident;hy i-v.. " .-ed to articles of food or cm-vlng ufemhs. i Aon of the fever poison in the ■ : ;-: i,■ : ; ■ c;; ttl iesc leave tlie 1 iody, V. m <if oh-:iif.ctants, and (inasmuch ;• i": o. rciion of disinfectants is .not • ho; -.igvly cevvain) the sale disposal of the r- - o,s d- ■mscl vos, are the means by v.vivh ve should try to prevent the •Usem ef, i: |i reading. .1. :!1 pi mom;, therefore, who would h-f ,; A m- Ives and their neighbours fi-.-.o dm.i infection, observe strictly the [olh-win;.;' rules shnold the disease occur in their Iml-sos: — ]. R-move 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 patient as much fresh air as possible. 3. 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 teacupful of the following disinfecting fluid into abed-pan or other vessel each time before tin* patient uses it, and add some more immediately after: —Soda water, a gallon ; sulphate of iron (i.0., copperas), a pound; carbolic acid (the common impure kind), bait a pint, in preparing ibis fluid the iron should first bo 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 tilth, such as a dung-pit or cesspool. As a general rule two quarts will suffice to disinfect one cubic foot of foul matter. b. Take care that the discharges are thoroughly mixed with the disinfecting lluid. 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 no account let them be thrown on to a refuse heap, if the bouse be in a town, and without a garden, so that fbe stools must of necessity be 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 flushed until basin ami pan are thoroughly clean. 0. 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 of half a pint of acid tom bucket of water. Have the tub and fluid ready prepared and at band before the linen is taken off. Lot the linen soak in this for two hours, 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 she may not wash it with Hie linen of ofhei persons. • 7. Let the nurse observe the most scrupulous care to keep everything clean, Let her wear a dress of washing material, as tliis is more easily disinfected than wool. As her bands must almosl unavoidably get soiled in helping the patient, let them wash them frequently in water to which some disinfecting lluid lias been added, and let her take care that the water thus used, as-well as all other slops, be emptied carefully intc the garden trench. 8. 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 a temperature of 2,sodeg. F. Otherwise this also should be destroyed. 9. If fever be in your neighbourhood but not as yet in your house, take the following precautions to keep it out: —.Drink no water that is open to the least suspicion, or, if you 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 bonrhood, such as a stinking drain or gnily, heaps of offensive refuse, and the like. Use all your influence influence to insist upon the preceecling precautions being strictly carried out by your neighbours whose bouses are already infected.