The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-07-15
How to Check Diphtheria.

4AN OtiO "a - 80 49, WV
Boston Board of Health for the purpose
of more widely extending the Knowledge
of a few well -attested facts concerning
diphtheria, and reminding all persons
that IA greater care should be exercised
to prevent the spread of this much
dreaded disease:
lDiphtheria is contagious and intec-
tious, and may be easily communicated,
either directly or indirectly, from per-
son to person. 1t may be conveyed di-
rectly in the act of kissing, coughing,
splitting, sneezing, or indirectly by
infected articles that are used, such as
towels, napkins, handkerchiefs, etc.
The poison clings with great tenacity to
rooms, houses, articles Of furniture and
clothing, and may occasion the disease
even after the lapse of months. Diph-
liberia attacks all classes, at all ages,
and at all seasons Of the year. By pre-
ference it attacks children and those
who are debilitated from exposure to
filth, dampness or foul air from what
ever source.
When a case of diphtheria occurs in
any family, the sick person should be
placed in a room apart from the other
inmates of the house, and should be
nursed, as far as possible, 10y one per
son only. The sick chamber should be
such as will permit of cleansing without
injury, and all extra articles. such as
window and table drapery, wooden car
| pets, upholstered furniture and all hang
inSs should be removed from the room
during the sickness. The physician and
the nurse, as a rule, should be the only
| persons admitted to the room. Visitors
| to the infected house should be warned
| of the presence of a dangerous disease
there, and children especially should not
be admitted.
All clothing removed from the patient
or the bed should be at once placed in
boiling water or in a tub of disinfecting
fluid 6 or. ~sulphate zinc, | OF. carbolic
acil, and , gallons water by the nurse
before being carried through the house
or handled bv any person. They may
be soaked IN this fluid for m hour, and
then placed in boiling water for boiling.
1t is better not to use handkerchlefs foi
cleansing the ~nostrlls and mouth of the
patient, but rather soft rags, which
should be Immediately burned there
after. All vessels for receiving the dis
charges Of the patient should constantly
contain some OF the disinfecting fluid.
Water closets and privies in the house
should be dlsinfectel daily with a solu-
ton Of copperas-two pounds to a gal
lon of water. Every kind and source of
filth in and around the house should be
thoroughly removed and disinfectahts
freely used. Cleanliness tends both to
prevent and mitigate the disease.
Drains should be put in perfecl order,
and ventilated by a four inch strqigh'
pipe extended above the highest point
of the roof of the house in every in
stance, terminating at a distance from
anv chimney or other ventilator.
Children in the family should not al
tend school or mingle with other chill
dren until the patient has wholly recov-
cred and all infected articles have been
disinfected.
On the recovery or death of the pa
tent the most thorough dlsinfection
should follow. The room and all arti-
ticles it should be at once subjected TO
the fumes of burning sulphur as follows;
Close the room tightly and. burn = lbs
of sulphur to each thousand cubic feet
of space. After four or six hours open
the room and expose it to the air and
sunlight for a week. Anything that can
be boiled without injury may he so
treated. The walls and ceilings should
be dry rubbed or white washed, and the
floors washed with soap and water, to
which may be added a little carbolic
acid.
When death occurs the body should be
Immediately placed in the coffin with dis
in~fectants, and the coffin tightly and
finally closed. No public funeral should
ever take place at the house where the
patient died, nor elsewhere, unless tie
coffin remains hermetically sealed.