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Some persons required a considerable amount of persuasion to undergo the
process, but it was satisfactory to note that when one person came from an
infected house several other occupants followed upon being told that having
a bath was "not so bad after all." Others expressed great surprise when
they found that the bath did not consist of anything more elaborate than
clean warm water and yellow soap, clean towels, dressing-gown and slippers,
while the clothing was being disinfected.
A few persons were very indignant when asked to have a bath, especially
those who badly needed it. In one case, where two or three generations were
living together in an underground room, there were three fatal cases of smallpox.
When I pointed out the necessity of personal disinfection to the eldest
female of the family, she, with a fierce look in her eye, indignantly exclaimed,
"Do you think that I am going to have a bath at my time of life ? "By her
appearance she must have been very young when she had the last one. She
did not come to the station.
As it is, the statute provides for the disinfection of infected premises and
articles, but not for infected persons.
In one of the largest lodging-houses in the Borough, which nightly
accommodates between 600 or 700 lodgers, 17 cases of small-pox occurred, the
infection spreading over a period of about eleven weeks. Not one lodger came
to the disinfecting station, although nearly all the patients mixed with the
other lodgers in the common rooms.
The Borough Council provided an ambuiance to convey contacts to the
disinfecting station. 197 persons availed themselves of the conveyance, which
was found to be most useful to convey children and old people.
General Disinfection.
At the end of January a new system was brought into operation which
enabled the disinfectors to commence their out of door work at 9 a.m., and not
attend at the office engaged in clerical work, by this means a considerable
amount of time has been saved and the work expedited.
46,634 articles of bedding, clothing, &c., were disinfected by steam in 715
batches during a period of 292 days. 1528 articles were destroyed by fire
with the owners' consent.
It speaks well for the manner in which the disinfectors do their work when
it is taken into consideration that a claim for damaged articles is of very rare
occurrence. An additional steam disinfector was fixed and a new van
provided.
Stripping and Cleansing of Rooms.
A great improvement has taken place in the stripping and cleansing of
rooms after infectious disease, the introduction of a default contractor has had
a salutary effect, the work being executed with greater care the day after
fumigation.