Volume 2

Sanitation / edited by the professional staff of The Bennett College ... J. Webster ; assisted by A. H. Winterburn.

Date:
[between 1900 and 1920]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Sanitation / edited by the professional staff of The Bennett College ... J. Webster ; assisted by A. H. Winterburn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/266 (page 3)
    Thus, in smallpox, the breath and discharges from the body are means by which this disease may be transmitted through air and food from one person to another. With cholera, infection comes mostly from the bowel dis¬ charges, and in this way anything with which they are brought into contact. For this reason it is very important that all stools from an infected patient should be disinfected before being dis¬ posed of, otherwise the disease will readily be transmitted to others. With diphtheria, the breath and discharges from mouth and nose are very infectious, and consequently anything they come in contact with, such as food, air, and clothing, may become contaminated. The same conditions apply to membranous croup. In erysipelas, the infection is conveyed into the body through a wound or an abrasion of the body coming in contact with any substance containing the germs. Scarlet fever infection may be from the breath or throat and nose discharges, and again during the period of desquamation, i.e. the period when the skin peels off the patient’s body. Exhalations from the body and the breath are the means by which typhus fever germs are carried, while the source of in¬ fection in typhoid and enteric fever is from the bowel discharges, as these contain the whole infection. With relapsing or continued fevers one cannot say with an\- degree of certainty what the source of infection is. .In Section 3 of the Infectious Disease (Notification) Act, 1889, the duty of reporting a case of infectious disease to the Medical Officer of Health for the district devolves upon the head of the family to which the patient belongs, or the nearest relative, or those having charge of the patient, while every medical prac¬ titioner attending, or called to visit a case of infectious disease, must forthwith notify the same, stating the name of the patient, the situation of the building, and the nature of the disease, to the Medical Officer of Health of the district. Failure to carry out these provisions may result in a penalty being inflicted. As to what conduces to infectious disease, many things may be attributable, such as, for instance, bad air, badly ventilated rooms, filthy houses, bad surroundings, food-stuffs, milk, domestic animals, such as cats, vermin, and, among other things, very often the house, its aspect or the site on which it is built, and faulty sani¬ tary arrangements. Cleanliness, along with plenty of fresh air and sunlight, are the best preventatives of infectious disease, and by the rigid enforcement of these specifics, much can be done to aid in pre¬ venting the ravages of this type of disease.