Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1908-01-23
Health Commissioner Dixon Sounds
Warning to Mothers Who Do Not
Appreciate the Serious Nature
of This Disease.
MORE THAN SCARLET FEVER
Deaths From Measles Number Two
and Half Times Those From
Scarlet Fever - impaired
Eyesight and Hearing
Apt to Follow.


Measles killed !, ,463 persons in Penn
sylvania during the year 1906 accord
ing to the record kept by the Bureau
of Vital Statistics of the State Depart
ment of Health OF these, 1910 were
under five years of age.
During the month of December alone
of this past year, there were reported
to the State Department of Health,
2307 cases of this disease which annu-
ally kills about two and one-half times
more children than scarlet fever and
yet continues to be regarded by SO
many people with comparatively little
concern
How to make the public appreciate
the really serious danger of measles
and get them to observe precautions to
| prevent the spread of the disease is
about the hardest problem in educa-
tional sanitary work that ] have en-
countered," said State Health Commits
sioner Dixon recently.
"a scarlet fever case in neighbor-
mothers heart If quarantine regula-
tions are broken by the members of
the infected household our health Of
ficers receive immediate complaints
from other parents in the vicinity who
are fearful that the disease may be
transmitted to their own little ones.
! This is natural and right, for scarlet
fever is a dangerous disease, but if we
could only get mothers to be equally
concerned in keeping their children
from the infection of measles, we might
save many a home from the sorrow of
an infant grave.
IF the child who has contracted
measles because it has been carlessly
exposed to the disease escapes death,
too often terrible affliction follows, as
for instance, seriously impaired hear
ing, damaged eyesight or chronic re-
spiratory affections that sadly interfere
with the normal, mental and physical
development. Is it not possible that
mothers will wake up to these real
! dangers in measules before it is too
| late, as "a life long sorrow and regret
! is the penalty of their careIessness."
The seven hundred and fifty town
| ship Health Officers of the State De-
| partment of Health when notified of n
case of measles in their district post
on the infected premises a placard stat
/ ing that "all persons are notified of the
/ presence of measles and are warned Of
/ the danger of visiting or coming in
| contact with the occupants of this
! house" The Health Officer also leaves
! at the house a circular containing the
/ following instructions for managing
/ the disease and preventing the spread
! of the infection.
Measles is by no means the harmless
! disease it is thought to be by many
| people, since it is shown by the statis-
! tics of the Department of Health that
in some epidemics more children die
! from measles than from Scarlet Fever.
For this reason it is imperative
| that a physician be summoned and
every possible effort made to check the
spread of the disease.
THE patient should be confined to
one room with windows screened,
which room should be we'll lighted and
ventilated and as remote as possible
from other occupied rooms in the
house.
There should be neither carpets, cur
| tains or upholstered furniture in the
| room. In order to confne the infection
to this room a sheet kept constantly
moist with a solution of Bichloride of
Mercury should be hung over the door
way.
ITO prepare this solution, dissolve
eight (S) Bichloride of Mercury tablets
in one gallon of hot water
An abundance of fresh air should be
admitted to the room, but the patient
should be protected from direct
lraugths and strong light.
THE air of the sick room cannot be
disinfected during it's occupancy by the
patient
THE practice of hanging up cloths
saturated with carboic acid or placing
saucers OF Chlorinated Lime or pre-
paratory disinfectants in the sick room
Is not only annoying to the patient,
out utterly useless il not injurious.
"All bed and body clothing, includ-
Ing handkerchiefs, towels, napkins.
cloths, etc, used for the collection of
discharges from the mouth and nose
should be disinfected before leaving the
sick room.
For this purpose, use a solution
made by dissolving one-quarter (A) of
pound of Chlorinated Lime (bleach-
ing powder) in eight gallons of water,
allowing such articles to remain in the
solution at least three hours befora
being washed.
Eating utensils should be scalded
and remnants of food destroyed by
burning.
None but those actually in attend
ance upon the patient should be per-
mitted to enter the sick room or come