Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-08
THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH TO
THE PEOPLE.


this matter. 1t fatty says to US, "diph-
liberia is preventable disease. If your
children die of it, you are to blame in a
large sense; if it spreads in your family
and your community you surely are blame
worthy and chargeable with what may
well be termed criminal neglect" Presi-
dent Orme and Secretary Tyrrell in their
recent circular for the Board do not mince
these matters when treating of this sub
ject.
Now, wherein are we to blame for the
spread of diphtheria and its increasing
malignancy? The answer is simple and
brief; we do not isolate the patients; we
do not take ordinary precautions to pre-
vent the breeding of the disease.
If one has the smallpox, we hang out
the yellow flag; we prevent any but nurses
and physicians coming within the area of
contagion; we burn the clothing of the
patient, and even strip the walls and tear
up the floor of the room in which he was
Ill; we destroy the germs of the disease by
the disposition of germicides in all vessels
used by the patients; we disinfect even
the water with which he is washed, or in
which his clothes are laundried. In short,
every possible vehicle of contagion is dis
infected or destroyed, and we go so far at
times as to frequently spray the atmos-
phere of an apartment occupied by the
sick person.
Now, diphtheriais as dangerous and con-
tagious as is smallpox. Many people fear
it more, and with good reason. In fact,
we believe statistics will show that more
suffer from and die of diphtheria than of
smallpox in this State in given group of
years. So powerful is the contagium of
diphtheria that it is now agreed that dogs
and cats frequenting. the room Of the pa
tient may convey the germs of the disease
to others.
What, then, should be the rules of
action among the people to prevent the
spread of diphtheria? The State Board of
Health lays them down very clearly.
There should be strict isolation of the sick.
All other members of the family but the
nurses should be removed to as distant
point in the house as is possible. If the
child is i'll in the upper part of the dwell
ing the lower part may be safely used by
the well, in most cases. The sick-room
should be freely supplied with fresh air,
and with sunlight where practicable
Draughts should be shut off. All useless
furniture should be removed from the
room, carpets and hangings should be taken
out, and all remaining drapery, the bed
ding, etc., be sprinkled with disinfectants
All clothing and cloths used should be
soaked before removed from the room in
disinfecting solution, and subsequently be
plunged into boiling water. All dis
charges from the patient should be i'm
mediately disinfected and then removed
and buried distant from any well. All
discharges of secretions from the nose and
mouth should be received on cloths
and Immediately burned. The nurses
should keep themselves and the patient
as clean as is possible, and frequently wash
their hands in disinfecting solutions. The
nurses should not associate with the family,
or the public without changing their
clothing throughout, and washing and dis
injecting themselves.
If death occurs the body should be
washed in a solution the Board describes,
and wrapped in a sheet soaked in the same
preparation. Burial should be made in
tight coffin, and the funeral should be
private. If the patient RECEIVERS, his or
her clothing should be disinfected with
a boiling solution and the convalescent
supplied with unintected clothing, and
kept away from school and public assem-
blages until the physician removes the
restriction. The Board ADDS that it has
abundant evidence of the clothing of the
patients in diphtheria having conveyed
the germs of the disease several weeks,
and even months after having been worn.
The room the patient occupied should be
fumigated and thoroughly disinfected, as
also all the cloth material used in the
apartment or forming any portion of the
furniture.
But this dread disease may be prevented,
and we look upon it as so much more to be
feared than most other contagious dis
orders, that we give this considerable
space to the subject to insure wide circu-
lation of the facts. Diphtheria may be
prevented from spreading by strict cleanli-
ness, by keeping cellars clean and cess
pool drains disinfected and house pipes
well trapped and ventilated. Matter liza
bic to decay should be removed and
burned or deeply buried; wells should
be looked to and no drainage into
them permitted, remembering that a we'll |
below the level of drain that leaks,
or of soil receiving foul matter,
will, even through hundred feet of !,
earth, receive the sipage. When diph- |
liberia occurs in family the children of