HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXIV, Issue 14049, 2 May 1946, Page 4

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

FRESH AIR AND INFECTION

(By the Department of Health)

The time for colds and ’flu and sere throats' is approaching—late autumn, winter and early spring. It is the time of shut windows, keepinginside because of the cold or wet, heated buildings —in short, the time of less fresh air, and less fresh air and more infections are linked together. The' school has more troubles at this period. In winter, just as in summer, doors and windows should be used for ventilation. At play and lunch intervals the aim should be to flush the whole building with fresh air. In class time the j windows should be manipulated to keep a flow of air. through the room. The tendency is to try to warm up the room by keeping out currents of air. The gentle flow of air is not only important for bodily comfort, it is also imperative-to stop the spread of infections.

Most of the winter ills and infectious diseases —colds, influenza, sore throats, measles, scarlet fever, etc., are contracted by inhalation. A child suffering from ’flu or measles scatters germs of the disease into the air around every time he breathes. If, the classroom is poorly ventilated with still warm air these germs stay suspended on their droplet carriers, and may be inhaled by a desk or classmate. But if the room is constantly flushed with fresh air, the geiuns are quickly wafted away, and the room mates escape trouble. The office and factory tell stories of stagnant warm air and epidemics of infectious troubles in the cold weather. If'is the same story as the school room.

The office, the factory, the workshop will all have a minimum of trouble this coming winter if the connection between fresh air and dodging infections is remembered.

If you want to have a lot of absenteeism and trouble again this wintei, forget your summer habit 01. fresh air. If you don’t —ventilate your rooms in/ spite of the cold.