24
GENERAL APPENDIX.
The following recommendations were made by the Committee :—
From
THE PRESIDENT,
PLAGUE RESEARCH COMMITTEE;
To
THE SECRETARY TO THE SURGEON-GENERAL
WITH THE GOVERNMENT or BOMBAY.
Petit Laboratory, J. J. Hospital,
Bombay, 9th December 1896.
SIR,
The undersigned members of the Plague Research Committee strongly
urge the adoption of the following measures for dealing with the existing
epidemic.
2. Seeing that it is known that each plague patient contains in himself the
source of infection, and seeing that there is a possibility of this passing either
directly or indirectly from the sick to the healthy, it is absolutely necessary that
the mostrigid isolation of the sick should be practised. For the attainment of
this end it is not necessary in all cases that the sick person or persons should be
removed from the house in which the attack commenced. Suitable rooms might
be available in the house in which the case could be efficiently isolated. In select-
ing such room, the points to be especially kept in mind should be the free supply
of sunlight and air and the minimising of the. chances of communication with
other persons in the house. Often, in place of a room, the flat roof of a house or
other such open space in connection with a house could be utilised for isolation
a temporary erection sufficing to keep off the direct rays of the sun. Whichever
method be adopted, the door passage of communication with the house should
be guarded by hanging over it a cloth kept constantly saturated with carbolic
solution (1 pint to 2 gallons).
3. All articles of clothing, etc., used by the patient, and all secretions
should either be disinfected before removal from the room, or destroyed by fire.
Not more than one attendant, or at the most two at a time, should be allowed in
the room.
4. If no suitable accommodation is available in the house, the patient must
be removed to a suitable place, which should, if possible, be a special
hospital.
5. After the removal recovery or death of the patient, the infected room
should first be hermetically closed and thoroughly fumigated with sulphur fumes.
The walls and floor should then be scraped, and they, together with all the
articles in the room capable of being so treated, should be washed with solution
of carbolic acid (1/2 pint to 2 gallons). Finally, the walls should be washed with
fresh quicklime and water, or preferably with a solution of chlorinated lime
Clothing, bedding, etc., should be treated in a steam steriliser. For the purpose
of transporting them to the sterliser, it is advisable that they should be wrapped
in a sheet soaked in carbolic acid solution. The room should be then vacated
for a period of at least six weeks, About a week before it is re-occupied, the
floor and walls should again be treated with chlorinated lime. On the occurrence
of a second case in the same house within 15 days of the occurrence of the first
case, the whole house should be vacated, the sick person being- removed to a
suitable hospital. If the removal of the sick cannot be effecteof without giving
rise to an objectionable amount of prejudice, they should be treated m the
house. The whole house, when vacated, should be subjected to the same process
as detailed for the infected room, with the proviso that any godown or place of
business, provided with a separate entrance and not used as a residence, need
not necessarily be vacated, but should be treated on its merits as to how far it
should come under the operation of the measures applicable to the rest of the
house.