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DESTRUCTION OF INFECTED BEDDING.
The following Report was presented to the Vestry early in the
present year:—
Gentlemen,—It having been intimated to me that some explanation of the
increased expenditure by the Sanitary Department during the past eighteen months,
for bedding, would be desirable, I have the honour to report, for the information of
the members of the Vestry, that it is my custom to order the destruction of infected
bedding in all cases of Small-pox, Scarlet Fever, and Typhus Fever; also in
Typhoid, when necessary.
I need scarcely remind the members of the Vestry that we are still in the midst
of an epidemic of Small-pox, and that very many cases are reported to us.
By favour of the Board of Guardians of the Parish, and of the School Board for
London, our department now receives information of all cases of infectious disease
coming under the cognizance of the Officers of these Boards ; we are also regularly
supplied by the local Registrars with information of all deaths in the Parish. From
these various sources a very much larger number of cases come to our knowledge
than was the case during the time of your late Medical Officer, Dr. Sarvis. All
these cases of infectious disease are visited, and such instructions as to disinfection,
destruction of bedding, &c., notices as to sanitary defects, &c., arc given as I
consider advisable, and such action is reported by me to the Sanitary Committee
on the Wednesday of each week. It is our custom to have feather beds disinfected,
the expense of which is ten shillings; but flock beds are, in most instances, not
worth such disinfection; we, therefore, destroy them, and replace with new. Many
of these beds are mere heaps of filthy rags, and could not possibly be disinfected;
it is our custom, however, to replace them by good new flock beds. Accompanying
this Report is a Schedule, which I have had prepared, shewing for each quarter of
the year 1877 the number of articles destroyed and replaced, and the cost of the
same.
The subject of a disinfecting apparatus has been several times mooted, but I do
not think that the annual expense for this would be less than our present bedding
account, though such apparatus would of course be available for other articles
besides bedding, and, therefore, of great value. Still, as before remarked, many
of the beds condemned are in such condition that they could not possibly be
effectually disinfected by any apparatus. Their possessors, however, would not
consent to their destruction, •without we undertook to replace them.
I am informed by the Sanitary Inspectors that, since our increased action in
this direction, much fewer instances of the communication of infectious disease to a
second person in the same house come under their notice.
1 have the honour to remain, Gentlemen,
Your most obedient Servant,
GEORGE PADDOCK BATE, M.D.,
Medical Officer of Health for St. Matthew, Eethnal Green.
April 16th, 1878.