The skin may scatter infection, especially in small-pox and scarlet fever. Frequent baths and inunction with vaseline or oil are useful.
The disinfection of hands is most important for all attendants on the infectious sick. A solution of corrosive sublimate 1-1000, or one of the above solutions may be used for this purpose; but this is to be supplemented by the free use of the nail-brush and soap and water. The treatment of linen has been described (page [329]).
Woollen articles of underclothing, and blankets can be disinfected by steam, which shrinks them less than boiling water. The ordinary laundry processes appear, however, to suffice to rid them of infection, without boiling.
Bedding, curtains, and carpets should be disinfected by steam. Certain precautions are required in removing these to the disinfecting station. Surface disinfection of the room must have been first effected (see below); and the infected bedding should be encased in canvas bags or sheets. When a steam disinfector is inaccessible, the mattress and pillows should be taken to pieces, the covers washed, and their contents disinfected by spraying with formalin solution (1 in 40) or HgCl₂ solution (1 in 1,000), and subsequently exposing to sun and air. For disinfection of suits of clothes, current steam may be improvised as follows:—Over two bricks at the bottom of the kitchen “copper” thin floor-boards are placed, above the level of 2 or 3 inches of water previously placed at the bottom of the copper. The cover of the copper is put on, and by means of a brisk fire steam is kept streaming through the clothes. This is continued for an hour, and the clothes then hung out to dry.
Furniture, when wooden, can be washed. If upholstered it can be disinfected by spraying (see p. 333), and then beating and dusting in the open air.
Furs, Boots, and Shoes are spoilt by steam. For the first, spraying freely with formalin (1 in 40), or exposure over a formalin lamp (page [326]) is recommended. Boots and shoes should be filled and washed with a solution of HgCl₂, chinosol, or formalin.
Fig. 58.
Equifex Spray Disinfector in Use.
The sick-room can only be efficiently disinfected after the patient has left it. The aim is surface disinfection. Aerial disinfection is sufficiently effected by open windows. Four chief methods of surface disinfection are practised. (a) Fumigation by SO₂, formalin, cresol, or other vapours (see page [326]). (b) Spraying the ceiling, walls, floor, and furniture with a disinfectant solution is probably the most convenient method of disinfection. It is more effectual than fumigation, less laborious than rubbing down walls, etc., by bread or wet cloth, and less likely to damage wall-papers than brushing a disinfectant solution on them. Solutions of HgCl₂ 1 in 1,000, or chinosol 1 in 1,200, or formalin 1 in 40 are efficient. A special spray apparatus (Fig. 58) is usually employed. A practical point is to spray the wall from below upwards, to prevent the solution running down the wall and producing streaks of discolouration. (c) Washing ceiling and walls with the disinfectant solution may be substituted. A one per cent. solution of hypochlorite of lime is largely used for this purpose, applied by a long-handled whitewash brush. (d) Attrition of walls, etc., by means of bread or dough sterilises them by mechanically removing microbes. The bread is cut into pieces suitable for grasping in the hand, the cut surface being applied to the wall. The crumbs must afterwards be burnt in the room. This is the official method in Germany.
Floors may be treated like walls and ceiling after the patient has left the room. During his occupancy of the room, tea-leaves or sawdust thoroughly impregnated with lysol or cresol should be sprinkled on the floor before it is swept, or washing substituted for sweeping. Scrubbing with soap and water constitutes the best disinfectant for floors and all other washable surfaces.