Typhus fever is very infectious, and is apt to attack those who are much exposed to it for the first time; therefore engage a nurse who has been previously attacked. The poison is thrown off by the skin and lungs and readily affects clothing, furniture, and everything in contact with the air of the room.
Efficient protection from smallpox is proper vaccination, known by a large mark or scar. Re-vaccination after the fourteenth year is advisable. Smallpox affects at a greater distance than any other, the poison escaping chiefly by the skin and mucous membrane.
Diphtheria poisons by the breath and expectoration; and to avoid contact with these is absolutely necessary. The expectoration should be received into a vessel containing Condy’s fluid, or on rags that may be at once burnt. Gargle the throat frequently with a solution of the same, of the strength of 1 small teaspoonful to 1 qt. water.
Whooping-cough is a disease which is most fatal to children under 2 years of age. The poison comes chiefly from the mucous secretions of the lungs and air passages, and is readily imparted to the clothes of those who nurse the patient; the secretions are infectious from the beginning.
Asiatic cholera rarely visits this country. As in typhoid fever, it spreads by means of the bowel discharges, and the same precautions are needed.
In any infectious disease, where the home has no accommodation for fully carrying out the precautions, the patient should be removed at once to a fever hospital. No time should be lost in obtaining medical advice.
One other source of danger may be mentioned here, and that is the poisonous vapours arising from broken gas mains, which will cause illness and even death from the carbonic oxide present. As a precaution against ground air contaminated with illuminating gas entering houses, open all cellar windows, as well as those on the ground floor of threatened houses, so as to prevent directly sucking in the ground air or render it harmless by dilution. The smell of gas should serve as a warning.
The following advice is addressed to those who have to visit or attend upon infectious cases. Always have the window open before entering the patient’s room or ward. Never stand between the patient and the fire, but always between him and the open window. If possible change your coat before entering the room. Do not go in for any unnecessary physical examination. Stay as short a time as possible in the room. Never, while in the room, swallow any saliva. After leaving the sickroom, wash the hands with water containing an antiseptic. Rinse out the mouth with diluted “toilet sanitas” or Condy’s fluid; also gargle the throat with it, and bathe the eyes, mouth, and nostrils. Expectorate and blow the nose immediately on leaving the sickroom. Keep up the general health by good food, exercise, and temperance. Filter all the air you breathe while in the sickroom or ward through an antiseptic medium, such as a McKenzie inhaler over the nose and mouth; carefully soak the sponge in a strong solution of carbolic acid before entering the sickroom; all the air breathed must necessarily come through this sponge, and the expired air is emitted, by a valve action, at another place.
Nurses should keep themselves and their patients as clean as possible, remembering that the more the infection accumulates, the more dangerous does it become. Special care should be taken, in changing sheets and clothing, not to shake or disturb them more than is absolutely necessary to remove them; as these acts disseminate the particles of skin which are removed with them, and which convey the germs of disease, they should be removed carefully, folded together, and immediately disinfected.