View report page

3
room on all occasions. The windows of the sick room should
always be open at the top. An open fire should always be kept
burning. All discharges from the patient should be received into
disinfectant solution. Handkerchiefs should not be permitted,
but rag or absorbent cotton wool may be used and immediately
burned. Nothing should leave the sick room unless it has been
previously disinfected, either in strong disinfectant solution or
boiling water. This applies alike to linen, clothing, and the
utensils of food. Unused or left food should be burned. At the
termination of the period of infectiousness, the patient should have
a warm bath, and leaving all wearing apparel in the sick room, dress
in clean clothes that have not been exposed to infection. The room
should be then closed up, and intimation sent to the Medical Officer
of Health by the Medical Attendant, that the room is ready for
disinfection. For some time after release from isolation or return
from the Hospital, the patient should not sleep, kiss, or come into
immediate contact with other persons. Should a cold be contracted,
a further period of isolation is necessary until all nasal or
other discharges have ceased, as infectiousness recurs with the
occurrence of catarrh. It is particularly important that a patient
released from isolation should not enter a crowded or ill-ventilated
room for some time after recovery. The more time spent in the
open air the better, and the better the sanitary condition of the
house and its inmates, the less likelihood of the recurrence of
infection.
Section 126 of the Public Health Act, 1875, provides that
" Any person who, while suffering from any dangerous
infectious disorder, wilfully exposes himself without proper
precautions against spreading the said disorder in any street,
public place, shop, inn, or public conveyance, or enters any
public conveyance without previously notifying to the owner,
conductor, or driver thereof that he is so suffering; or being
in charge of any person so suffering so exposes such sufferer;
or gives, lends, sells, transmits, or exposes without previous
disinfection any bedding, clothing, rags, or other things
which have been exposed to infection from such disorder,
shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding £5."