Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1904-10-08
GENERAL.
TyDEiOd Fever,

The following important paper was
issued by the State Board of Health in
June, this year:
How TO PREVENT ITS SPREAD.
When Typhoid Fever appears in a
family the source of the infection must
be looked for in drinking water or food
taken within the preceding twenty
days. The patient may not have been
infected at home, but if second case
occurs this second infection will in all
the first patient. In majority of in
infected Your first business therefore
is to find out the quality of your drink
ing water.
You can do this by asking the local
health officer for instructions about
shipping us samples of your drinking
water. In about a week we will be able
to report on the drinking water, but in
the meantime the members of the
family must not use the raw water.
The daily supply of drinking water
must be boiled.
The infectious material OF typhoid fever
is produced in but one way. 1t grows
always Ill Gllc DOWtlS anu Ill
the bladder. 1t therefore escapes from
the stools and urine. If we kill the
germs in the stools and urine as soon as
they are passed there can be no spread
of typhoid fever. These discharges
should therefore be disinfected as soon
as possible. You will need large
quantity of good disinfecting solution
RECEIPT FOR A Coop DIsINFECTANT
To four gallons of water add enough
salt to make a strong brine. Put this
in five gallon demijohn or jug and
add a quart of crude carbolic acid
Shake it up well and you will have a
good disinfectant for stools and urine
The crude carbolic acid known as U.
S. p. 80 per cent. is very good and d
quart will cost about 80 cents. There
is cheaper grade known as a 30 per
cent. acid, which is nearly as effective.
About a pint of this solution should
be put i'll the chamber or bed pan be-
fore it is used, so that the discharges
will begin to be disinfected as soon as
they leave the body. There must al
ways be at least as much of the dis
injecting solution as there Is of the dis
charges, SO that more of the disinfecting
uCCu W NC dduttl dlUtI tuc
discharges are passed. If the stools are
thin and watery their disinfection will
be accomplished in half an hour or so,
but if the stools are thick or formed
very much more time will be required
On that account it is best to have a
covered jar or bucket into which the
bed pan can be emptied, and to empty
this jar only once i'll 81 hours. If the
discharges cannot be finally thrown in
to a sewer they should be buried in the
soil at a convenient spot where there is
no chance of their fouling water
supply. The discharges should never
be thrown upon the surface of the
ground, for you will hardly be success
full in killing all the typhoid baciHi. and
you must not place them where those
not killed by the acid may be blown
about in the dust or carried away by
flies to infect other people.
In spite of every precautiOn those who
wait on the sick person will get their
hands infected, and it is therefore neces-
sary to wash the hands every time one
does any service about the patients bed
or body. Whoever waits on the patient
must not prepare food or drink for
other persons in the house, or if it is
impossible to mind this rule, one must
most carefully and thoroughly cleanse
the hands before performing any house.
hold duty outside the sick room. Good
scrubbing with soap, water, and brush,
and then rinsing well i'll fresh water,
will suffice for cleansing the hands.
The typhoid bdciii"s frequently lives
in the bowels or in the bladder of the
patient for several weeks after recovery.
| The urine remains infectious longest.
1t is therefore necessary to be very care
full, and to instruct the patient to be
very careful, about these discharges for
sometime after recovery.
/ If any one else in the house falls sick
within two weeks after the first patient
the probability is that the infection was
lodged before the precautions were
taken in regard to drinking water and
the disposal of discharges. But if the
| second case occurs more than 20 DAVIS