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69
Use of Disinfectants.—Again it has been almost impossible to
persuade people to adopt means for preventing the spread of the disease
by hanging up sheets saturated with disinfectants. One reason for this
is, I believe, that while the first stage of the disease is acute, and the
patient is confined to bed, and is really ill, yet after about a week, the
acute symptoms having passed away, the patient feels tolerably well,
and is most anxious to get out. His parents will then tell you he is
quite well, become indignant when you instruct them that he must not
leave the house, and are more than astonished when they are informed
that, while the child is desquamating, he is a source of great danger to
the public. They do not believe you, and straightway down comes the
sheet from the door, and presently the youngster has the run of the
house, to the great danger of others.
Hospital Accommodation.—But it may very properly be asked,
why was not such a case, especially if living in a tenemented house,
removed to a hospital, where he would cease to be a source of public
danger ?
You may well ask! And the reply is not far to seek.
There was no room in the hospitals, and when beds were vacant the
most urgent cases were not always those that were taken away.
There have been many anxious scenes in the Public Health Offices
of this Vestry during this epidemic, created by the great anxiety of
parents to get their children removed. The causes of this anxiety have
been many and varied. Thus, for instance, there have been many cases
where women were near their confinement, and where the patient was
treated in the mother's rooms. There have been cases where there have
been families of seven or eight in number living in two rooms; there
have been cases where there was only one room; there have been cases
where the breadwinner of the family was prevented from going to work,
and where consequently he could not provide for his home. Laundresses
have been stopped work, and charwomen prevented from going out,
while outworkers have had to cease bringing their work home, and all
because the cases could not be taken into hospital.
With the epidemic at its height we were getting practically no patients
into hospital. At that time there were numerous cases of urgency