The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1904-06-22
A SUGGESTION FROM THE HEALTH
OFFICER.
Precautions to be Observed in Dealing
With Contagious Diseases.

Some persons are determined to ex-
aegerate the, amount of sickness in
the communities in which they live,
am do so with fendish pleasure in
many instances. 1t is much better to
go to the right place or person for in
formation than to believe and repeat
every thing you hear about the num-
Der of cases of any contagious disease
Some party or parties have circulated
the report that there are between
twenty-five and thirty cases of typhoid
fever in Sumter. AS a matter of fact,
there have been but six cases this
year. For a city of between eight and
nine Thousand population that is a
good showing; and there is no place
in the United States or in the world
but that some sickness can be found.
1t has been suggested by the health
officer that in order to suppress the
spread of typhoid fever, that as soon
as any person is attacked with fever of
any kind that he be immediately no.
tilted. He will proceed at once to
your house and take the necessary
sanitary precautions to prevent the in
lection of your premises. and of other
peoples too. Do not wait until the
physician has com mpleted his diagnosis
of the case, which takes several days
to a week some times. as the danger
of Infection is considerable from the
discovery of the fever until the doc
tor has decided whether it is typhoid
fever. If it turns out to be typohid,
why the danger of spreading has been
done away with. If it is not typhoid,
no harm has been done. Flies do
more to spread typhoid fever than any
other thing, and if the health officer
can get to your place at the bginning
of the case of fever he will instruct
you what to do during the sickness as
sanitary precaution. It is the duty
of the physician also to give these in
>structions, which they nearly always
debut il is peculiarly the health
officers duty to execute the sanitary
laws, and to assist you to do every
thing possible to protect other people
as we'll as yourself. If a patient is
removed to an infrmary, notify the
health officer as soon as the patient
is taken from the house. AS soon as
the patient has recovered sufficiently to
leave the sick room, notify the health
officer who will Immediately disinfect
the room. In case of death do the
same thing. There are certain sani-
tary precau tions of simple nature to
be observed during cases of typhoid,
which it is not necessary to go into
detail about, but you can and will re-
ceive all of the information and as
sistance needed from the department
of health, if you will only notify che
officer as instructed above.
If you have any troubles to tell the
health officer about do so at once. Do
not wait long time, and in the mean
while go around abusing and "cuss-
ing" him out. While you are indulg-
ing in the luxury of abusing. and some
times "cussing'' out that thick skin
ned, "cuss proof official be could
have abated a hundred nuisances in
your neighborhood. No health officer
is supposed to have any feelings which
could be injured OF punctured, so you
do not gain thing by waiting to re-
port nuisances. Report the nuisance
and abuse him after be has abated
them.