TUBERCULOSIS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 6, 9 January 1899, Page 3

TUBERCULOSIS.

PREVENTIVE MEASURES

OFFICIAL RECOMMENDATIONS

The Victorian Board of Public Health has issued a sheet dealing with the dread disease tuberculosis. Under the heading 'Prevention' we have the following: —

1, Tubercular mothers and tubercular wet-nurses must not suckle iu- > fants. 2, Milk must not be taken from a milkman who cannot show a certificate from a veterinary practitiouer that the cows from which the milk is taken are free of disease, and a certificate from a medical practitioner that the dairying operations are properly conducted. 3.'Meat must not be taken from a butcher who cannot give satisfactory evidence that the meat is wholesome, and that in the slaughtering and dressing' scrupulous cleanliness was observed.

4. If such evidence cannot be obtained ,the meat must be well cooked, and the milk must be ooiled (for an instant). 5. Dairy cattle, milking sheds, dairies, etc.. must be under supervision of veterinary and medical practitioners, or trained pathologists. Every dairy cow must be subjected to the tuberculin test, and if by that or other means shown to be tubercular, must at once be disused and slaughtered. The storing of milk in a dwelling subjects the milk to many infections, and milk that is not fresh is dangefous or poisonous. 6. Houses, closets, schools, shops offices, factories, mines, common lodg-ing-houses, boarding-houses, hotels, public-houses, restaurants, nurseries, creches, hospitals, theatres, libraries, orphanages, and public conveyances (railway carriages, 'buses, cabs, tram cars) must be well ventilated and well sunlighted, and their interior surfaces (floor, walls, ceilings, etc.) must be dry, and such that they may be easily cleaned. Complete and satisfactory change of air of enclosed spaces cannot be obtained without openings introduced in opposite walls, and extended from near the ceiling or wall-plate to the floor level; holes through the skirtings, in the shape of small opening windows, are very useful. No spitting on the floor should be allowed; and spittons, containing a litle water, should be liberally supplied and be cleansed daily. 7. All such places must be frequently cleaned, not by dry, but by damp, processes —water, water sprays, damp cloths, damp brushes, wet tealeaves, wet sawdust, and such like means being employed, so that the dust may be effectually removed, and the person engaged in the cleaning may not inhale it. It is a good plan to spray floors with some disinfectant prior to sweeping them. All articles of furniture, especialy carpets, should be taken out of doors at intervals for cleaning. All food manufactories and food shops must be kept scrupulously clean.

8. A house or room that has been occupied by a tubercular patient should not be taken for occupation unless satisfactory evidence be given that the same has been thoroughly disinfected.

9. All must be taught how to preserve the general health, so as the better to resist invasion by the tubercle (and other disease-causing) microbes. Every form of intemperance, and sudden exposure to great changes of temperature, must be avoided. If employed in dusty occupations study must be made the means for avoiding the inhaling of the dust. Breahing should, as far as practicable, be conducted through the nose,> and not through the mouth. 10. Tuberculosis among cattle must be eradicated —a matter which has been shown to be practicable.

11. Public disinfecting ovens must be provided for insuring complete disinfection of clothing, bedding, carpets, rugs, and such like articles. 12. When a case of tuberculosis occurs the sanitary authority of the district (i.e., the local Council) should be informed, so that any necessary disinfection of the house and its contents may be carried out. The patient must live, as much as practicable, in the open air, and must not engage in any dusty occupation, the diseased surfaces in the lung of the consumptive affording an excellent ground for the settlement and growth of any disease-producing organisms that may be in the dust. The tubercular patient must, of course, be specially careful not to take tubercular milk or tubercular meat. The consumptive must not spit about, but must spit only into a cup, spittoon, or handkerchief, the cup or spittoon containing a little water, with or without disinfectant, and its contents being at frequent intervals boiled or burned, or emptied into the closet; and the handkerchiefs (or rags), when soiled with sputum, being placed in a movable pocket, and they, together with the pocket, being boiled in water. A paper fitting may be introduced into the spittoon, and it, with the contents, be burned. The room occupied by the patient must

be well ventilated and well sunlighted, and provided -with merely such furniture as is really required; a fire should be kept burning in it. The patient, the clothing, and bedding must be kept scrupulously clean. Articles of crockery, etc., used by the consumptive, must not, unless first thoroughly cleansed, be used by other jpersons. Any articles soiled with sputum must be at once thoroughly disinfected. Consumptives must not undertake teaching in schools, nursing, the tending of children, the sale of foods, the handling of milk, unless they can and do rigidly observe all the precautions required to

disinfect their sputum. Consumptives at school must be specially attended to. Helpless consumptives must be accommodated in a hospital for the purpose. If this cannot be done, the patient must sleep alone, and the attendant must be made fully aware of the danger attaching to' the sputum. In the event of death the sanitary authority of the district should be at once informed, so that any necessary disinfection may be carried out as early as possible.