The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-02-07
Diphtheria.
How to Avoid it and How to Restrict it.

How to Avoid it and How to Restrict 1t.
PHILADELPHIA Ledger.
While diphtheria is not sufficiently
prevalent to cause alarm, yet sugges-
tions for its restriction and prevention
will not be, at this season of the year,
untimely. The following statements
and recommendations are taken from
circular issued from an authoritative
source Diphtheria is contagious dis
ease, hence the strict observance of the
following precautions is of very great
importance When child or young
person has a sore throat, bad odor to
its breath, and especially if it has fever,
it should Immediately be kept separated
from all other persons, except necessary
attendants, until it be ascertained
whether or not it has diphtheria or
some other communicable disease.
Every person known to be sick with
diphtheria should be promptly and ef-
fectually isolated from the public; no
more persons than are actually necessa-
ry should have charge of or visit the
patient, and they should be restricted
in their intercourse with other persons.
The room into which one sick with
diphtheria is placed should previously
be cleared of all needless clothing, car
pets, drapery and other materials like
ly to harbor the poison of the disease.
This room should constantly receive a
liberal supply of fresh air without cur
rents or drafts directly upon the pa
tient. 1t will be well also to have the
sunshine directly into the room.
The discharges from the throat, nose
and mouth are extremely liable to COM
municate the disease, and should be re-
ceived in vessels containing strong
solution of copperas (sulphate of iron),
or on soft rags or pieces of cloth, which
should Immediately be burned.
The discharges from the kidneys and
bowels are also dangerous, and should
be passed into vessels containing a
strong solution of sulphate of iron( (cop-
peras), and then be buried at least one
hundred feet distant from any well ; or,
when this is impracticable, they should
be passed on old cloths, which should
Immediately be burned. Sulphate of
iron dissolved in water in the proper
tion of one and a-half pounds of the
sulphate to one gallon of water, is a
good solution for chamber vessels, water
closets, &c. When much is wanted it
may be prepared by hanging basket
containing sixty pounds of copperas in
barrel of water.
The clothing, towels, bed linen, &C.. 4,
on removal from the patient, should at
once, before removal from the room,
be placed in a pail or tub of hot boiling
zinc solution, made in proportion as
follows: Water, one gallon; sulphate
of zinc, four ounces; common salt, two
ounces.
Nurses and attendants should be re-
quired to keep themselves and their pa
tient as clean as possible; their own
hands should frequently be washed and
disinfected by chlorinated soda.
All persons recovering from diphthe-
ria should be considered dangerous ;
therefore, such person should not be
permitted to associate with Others, orto
attend school, church or any other
public assembly until the throat and
any sores which may have been on the
lips or nose are healed, nor until in the
Judgment of a careful and intelligent
health officer he can do so without en-
dangering others; nor until after all
his clothing has been thoroughly dis
infected, and this without regard to the
time which has elapsed since recovery,
if the time is less than one year. Nor
should a person from premises in which
there is or has been case of diphtheria
attend any school, Sunday school,
church or public assembly, or be per-
mitted by the health authorities or by
the school board to do SO, until after
disinfection of such premises and of the
clothing worn by such person ifit shall
have been exposed to the contagion Of
the disease.
The body of person who has died
of diphtheria should be washed with a
zinc solution of double the strength
stated above, then wrapped in a sheet
wet with the zinc solution, and at once
be buried. In no case should the body
be exposed to view.
No public funeral should be held at q
house in which there is case of diph'
liberia, nor in which death from diph-
liberia has recently occurred. Except
under extraordinary precautions there
should be no public funeral of person
who has died from diphtheria. Nc
child should attend, and it would be
better in most cases that few adults
should attend funeral Of person
dead of diphtheria.
METHOD OF DISENFECuON.
After death or recovery from diph
liberia, the room in which there ha:
been case of diphtheria, whether fata
or not, should with all its contents, bt
thoroughly disinfected by exposure fol
several hours to strong fumes of burn
ing sulphur, and then, if possible, i
should for several hours or days be ex
posed to currents of fresh air.
Because of the innumerable ways II
which the contagion may be scattered
about the house and premises wher'
there has been case of diphtheria, th'
entire house and outbuildingS, includ
ing cellar, garret, woodshed and privy
will usually need to be disinfected.
Rooms to be disinfected must be va
Gated. Heavy clothing, blankets, bed
ding and other articles, which canno
be treated with the zinc solution, shoul'
be spread out so as to be exposed
during fumigation, which should tax
place in the room where the clothing
etc., has been used in connection will
the patient. For a room about ten fee
square, at least two pounds of sulphu
should be used for larger rooms, pro
portionately increased quantities, at TIL
rate oftwo pounds for each 900 cubi
feet of air-space.
Close all openings to the room, plac
the sulphur in an iron pan, supported