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113
sary primarily on medical grounds, any application for a modification
of the general practice is usually supported by a medical certificate.
The Council decided that except is cases of smallpox and typhoid
fever, and in any exceptional cases approved by the Medical Officer of
Health, where disinfection cannot be carried out in the home, terminal
fumigation and removal of bedding and other articles for stoving after
the commoner notifiable infections shall be abandoned, the householder
being instructed as to the precautionary measures to be taken. Where
householders still requested that fumigation or stoving be carried out, a
charge was to be made. It was later decided that terminal fumigation
and stoving of articles should be carried out free of cost in the case of
open tuberculosis and of scabies. Experience during the war showed
that the risk of transmission of infection in scabies by clothing is very
much less than it had been thought to be. Although, then, when the
incidence of scabies rose so markedly in the earlier of the war years,
arrangements were made for the stoving of the clothing, the practice
was later modified, as ordinary laundering of under garments was considered
sufficient in most cases. In regard to the treatment of premises
which have been occupied by those suffering from open tuberculosis, it
is felt that in this even more than in the other infections, it is essential
that the premises should be thoroughly cleansed beforehand, otherwise
the organisms are too likely to be protected against the action of the
disinfectant. The practice has been adopted, then, through the kindness
of the staff of the chest clinics, of a report being obtained from them
that the other steps have been taken and the premises cleansed. On
receipt of this report, but not until then, arrangements are made for the
treatment of the rooms and their contents.
Many trials have been made of various means by which the air of
rooms could be treated so as to reduce the bacterial content and so reduce
the risk of spread of infection to the occupants of the rooms. Ultra
violet rays from lamps have been used. The Annual Report of the
Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health for 1953 refers to the
use of aerosols which are bactericidal mists. In a controlled experiment
ln an office, some of the rooms were treated with the vapour of heavy
resorcinol. There was no detectable effect on the bacterial content of
,tle air, on the number of colds recorded by the staff, or on the number
01 days of absence by members of the staff from sickness. The conclusion
reached was that " So far no method of treatment of the air of closed
rooms by disinfectants in tolerable concentrations has been proved to
ave any beneficial effect on the reduction of respiratory disease."
For most of the period since 1934 the steam disinfection of articles
needing treatment has been carried out in the Washington Lyon Steam
lsinfector at what was the Honeypot Lane Isolation Hospital. On the
anding over of the hospital to the County Council, who converted it
jjj10 a.residential nursery, the volume of work fell. The plant was run
e" conJunction with the laundry which had been kept busy dealing more
pecially with articles from the two isolation hospitals, but also treating
th 'C| 'TOm SUC^ P'aces as clinics. The volume of work dealt with at
vervMdr^ a'S° ^ mar'ce(ily on the closing of the hospital, and left
' '™e to be treated from the Harrow Council premises. The laundry
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