View report page

Disinfection and Disinfestation.
It is becoming evident that where people maintain a
good standard of cleanliness there is much less need for
disinfection after infectious disease than was previouslysupposed.
Disinfection is still, of course, absolutely
essential in some diseases such as smallpox, but in the
cases of other diseases the position is almost ludicrous.
The outstanding example is scarlet fever and it not uncommonly
occurs that two persons are infected with the same
type and strain of organism, in one case a rash develops
and the patient is correctly diagnosed and notified as
suffering from scarlet fever; in the other case no rash
develops and the patient is correctly diagnosed as a case
of Tonsillitis. In the Scarlet Fever case disinfection of
the premises and clothing, etc., is offered, mainly to satisfy
public opinion and to avoid criticism of the Public Health
Department and the offer is usually accepted. In the
Tonsillitis case where the danger to others is exactly the
same, the Public Health Department is almost certainly unaware
of the case and even if the information was given,
would almost equally certainly take no action.
It is almost impossible for a single local authority to
rationalise the position in its own area without the assistance,
at least, of neighbouring authorities, and it is quite unreasonable
to expect a general medical practitioner to alter
the advice he gives to his patients according to the local
authority's area in which they live. It would be helpful if
the Ministry would made some authoritative statement as to
the practice which is recommended so that useless expenditure
of public money could be avoided without causing that
public disquiet which could arise from conflicting medical
advice.
19.