PRECAUTIONS AGAINST THE SPREAD OF TYPHOID FEVER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 2430, 6 January 1876, Page 4

PRECAUTIONS AGAINST THE SPREAD OF TYPHOID FEVER.

(JWi PufcKo Health,) Dttiwn up by William Ogle, M.A., M.D., Ozon,, F.E.0.P,, Lond., Medioal Offioer of Health for the combined Distriots of East Bert*, And oiroulftted by the Sanitary Authorities. Published at the request of the Undersecretary for Immigration :— lypboid, enterio, or gagtrio fever are names given to one and the tame infeQtlous disease, thii befog a fever produced by exoremental poisoning, and almost invariably accompanied by diarrhoea. Of all excremental matter, the moit poisonoui if that which comes from persons tjwmielves ill with the fever t and it {•principally by means of th«ir stools that the disease spreads from one person to another. The poison may be taken in by breathing the effluvia from these disohargee. or from the privy, cesspool, or drains into wbioh they have been emptied} or by drinking water from wells into whioh they have soaked} or by swallowing particles that have adhered to clothes, beading, or other objeots, and thence been accidentally transferred to artiolos of food or cooking utensils. 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 thorn-

selves, are the means by whioh we should try to prevent the disease from spreading. Lot all persons, therefore, who would keep themselves and their neighbours free from infeotion, observe strictly tho following rules should the disease ooour in their houses «—

1. Remove at onoo from the sick-room all carpets, ourtains, and other objeots likely to get fouled. 2. Keep overy one whoso presenoe is not absolutely necessary out of tho flick-room, and by moans of opon windows and open doors give the patient as muoh fresh air as possible 8. Put a pieoe of waterproof sheeting under the bed olothes, in the middle of the bod, so as to prevent the bed from getting soiled. 4. Put a teacupful of tho following disinfeoting fluid into a bed-pan or other vossel eaoh time before the pationt uses it, and add some more immediately after :— Soda water, a gallon} sulphate of iron (i.e., oopperas), a pound j oarbolio aoid (tho common impure kind), half a pint. In preparing this fluid tho iron should first be dissolved by stirring in boiling water, and the oarbolio aoid added when the iron is dissolved and the fluid 0001. Bomember that oarbolio aoid is a poison j keep the mixture therefore in a safe place. Tho same fluid may be used with great advantago to disinfect any accumulation of filth, such as a dung-pit or cesspool. As a general rulo two quarts will suffioe to disinfeot one cubio foot of foul matter.

6. Take caro that the discharges are thoroughly mixed with the dismfeoting 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 no oooount let them be thrown on to a ref use heap. If the house be in a town, and without a garden, so that the stools mast of necessity be thrown down the oloßofc, add a double allowance of the disin« feotant, and take care that the emptying bo done without splashing the seat, ana that the oloset be flushed until basin and, pan are thoroughly olean. 6. Lot bed and body linen, immediately it is taken off, be put into a tub of water, to which oarbolio aoid has been added, in the proportion of half a pint of aoid to a bucket of water. Hare the tub and fluid ready prepared and at hand before the linen is taken off. Let the linen soak in this for two hours, and then let it bo aotually boiled in washing. On no account must the linen be sent to a laundresa without thorough previous disinfection, nor without informing her of its oharaoter, so that she may not wash it with tho linen of other persons. 7. Let the nurse observe the most sorupu* lous care to keep everything olean. Let Jbier wear a dress of washing material, as this is more easily disinfeoted than wool. As her hands must almost unavoidably get soiled in helping the patient, let her wash them fluid has been added, and let her take oare that the water thus used, as well as all other slops, be emptied oaref ully into the garden trench. 8. When the illnoss is over, the bed, if soiled, should be burnt j or the tick or sacking cover may be disinfeotod by thorough boiling, and the flook or straw stuffing burnt. Should there bo a disinfeoting oven available, the stuffing of hair mattresses may be teasoa out and then disinfeoted by baking at a tern* perature of 2Bodeg F, Otherwise this also should be destroyed. The floor of the siok room and tho bedstead and other furniture should bo thoroughly sorubbed with soft soap and oarbolio aoid. All the implements and utensils that have been in use in the siok room should be well soalded. The dress worn by the nurse should be disinfected with oarbolio aoid and boiled as dirooted in the sixth paragraph. 0. If fever be in your neighbourhood, but not as yet in your house, take tho following precautions to keep it out s— Drink no water that is open to the least suspicion, or, if you can get no other, boil it before drinking, use no oloset or privy that is used by houses in which there is already fever. Give immediate notice to tho Sanitary Inspootor of any nuisanoo in you neighbourhood, suoh as a stinking drain or gully, heaps of offensive refuse, and the liko. U«o all your influence to insist upon tho preoeding precautions being striotly carried out by your neighbours whose houses are already infected.