The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1914-11-19
PREVENTION BETTERTHAN CURE
No Specific Remedy is offered for
Dread Disease Among Children But
Officials Urge People to Unite in Eff
fort to Prevent Spread of Contagion.

The great increase in the number of
cases of scarlet fever which always ac-
companies the opening of the schools
in the fall has caused the United
State Public Health Service to issue
at this time bulletin on this serious
disease of childhood.
While the way in which scarlet
fever is spread and it's prevention are
well known to health officers and ply
sicians, the general public usually neg
lects to take those precautions which
would diminish and prevent this dis
ease so fatal to young children.
The contagion of scarlet fever is
spread principally from the discharges
of the nose and throat, and the acts
responsible for the transmission of the
disease from the sick to the well, are
those which are common in our every
day life, particularly among children;
namely, kissing, the use of the common
drinking cup and common towel, plac-
ing in the mouth articles such as lead
pencils, candy, apples, and the like,
which have been previously placed in
the mouth or infected with the nose
and throat discharges Of persons suf-
fering from scarlet fever, or by being
sprayed with such discharges in the
act of being "coughed at" or
"sneezed at.D
We possess no specific remedies
against scarlet fever. The disease
once contracted must run it's course.
The chief efforts for its control, there
fore, must be directed towards its pre-
vention. The most important means
for preventing scarlet fever consist
first, in the early recognition of the
cases as they occur, and second, in a
thorough isolation of those who are
sick. The important thing to remem-
Der is that a child, sick with scarlet
fever who is thoroughly isolated, does
not transmit the disease. This isolation
must be carried out for a minimum
period of six weeks or longer if the
mucous membranes of the nose and
throat are not thoroughly healed by
that time. Safe and thorough isola-
ton in the home, however, is rather
difficult to accomplish and is usually
impossible in over-crowded city dis
tricts.
Our chief reliance, therefore, for
public control of scarlet fever lies
first in the provision for adequate con-
tagious disease hospitals where all the
measures for the isolation Of scarlet
fever can be properly carried out; sec
end, in the prompt reporting by physi-
clans of scarlet fever cases; third, in
providing a sufficient number of in
spectors and visiting nurses in health
departments for the purpose of visit
ing the homes where scarlet fever cases
occur and seeing that proper sanitary
precautions in regard to isolation are
observed; and fourth adequate systems
of medical supervision of school child
rem; the abolition of the common
drinking cup, the common towel, the
common slate and lead pencil in all our
schools. While the habit of putting
things in the mouth is instructive in
children, parents. should early teach
their children that the only things that
properly belong in the mouth are food
and drink. The danger of such prac-
tees as of putting pencils, coins and
the like in the mouth, exchanging bites
of candy and apples among children,
and similar practices should be one of
the first features of the child Is
education.