Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1915-07-22
TYPHOID FEVER-H0W TO PRE-
VENT ITS SPREAD:

When typhoid fever appears in a
family the source of the infection must
be looked for in drinking water or in
food taken within the preceding TWEEN
ty days.
The patient may not have been in
fected at home, but if a second case
occurs this second infection will,in all
probability be traceable to the first
patient In q majority of instances
the drinking water has become infec-
ted. Your first business, therefore. is
to find out the quality of your drink
ing water.
You can do this by asking your local
health officer for instruction about
shipping us samples of your drinking
water. The daily supply of drinking
water should be boiled. The infec-
tious material of typhoid fever is pro-
duced in but one way. 1t grows always
in the bowels and sometimes IN the
bladder. 1t, therefore. escapes from
the sick person in 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 fe-
yer. These discharges should, there
fore, be disinfected as soon as possible.
You will need large quantity of a
good disinfecting solution.
To four gallons of water add enough
salt to make a strong brine Put this
in a five-gallon demijohn or jug and
add quart of crude carbolic acid.
Shake it up we'll 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 a
quart will cost about so cents. There
is a cheaper grade, known as 36 per
cent, acid, (which is nearly as effective.
About a pint of this solution should
be put in 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 disin-
fecting solution as there is of the dis
charges, so that more of the disinfect-
ing solution may be needed to be add
ed after tho discharges are passed. II
the stools are thin and watery.theiT
disinfection will be accomplished in
half an hour or so; but if the stools
are thinck or formed very much more
time will be required.
On that account il is best to have a
covered jar or bucket into which the
bed pan can be emptied. and TO empty
this jar only once in twenty-four
hours. If the discharges cannot fl
nally be thrown into sewer, they
should be buried in the soil at con-
venient 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 successful inkilling
all the typhoid bacili, and you must
not place them where those not killed
by the acid may be blown in the dust
or carried away by flies in infect other
people in the neighborhood.
In spite of every precaution those
who wait on the sick person will gel
| their hands infected,and il is therefore
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 impossible to mind this
rule.one must carefully and thorough.
ly cleanse the hands before perform.
ing any household duty outside the
sick room. Good scrubbing with soap
| water and a brush. and then rinsine
well in water. will suffice for cleans.
ing the hands
If any one else in the house falls
sick within two weeks after the frs
patient, the probability is that the in.
lection was lodged before the precau.
tions were taken in regard to drink.
ing water and the disposal of dischar.
ges. But if the second case occurs
more than twenty days after the frs
case, that viii signify that we hav.
made a mistake somewhere in oul
precautions.
STATE BOARD OF HEALTH