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9
for this treatment, where scrupulous cleanliness and
skilled nursing in the acute stages of the disease are
absolutely necessary.
The first step then is the erection of an
Isolation Hospital on the site you have already
acquired. One ward with four beds, with four
rooms for single beds, would serve very well as a
commencement, as the provision for Scarlatina is
not so pressing, whilst Enteric can be treated in a
general hospital.
The next difficulty that arises is how to get hold
of the patients in the earliest stage of the disease.
Where a medical man is called in no difficulty arises,
but a great number of the poorer classes delay seeking
for advice on account of the expense, and have
an insuperable objection to the aid of the poor law.
I would suggest that it might be arranged that every
person suffering from sore throat might have the
right to send to the Medical Officer of Health for
the purpose of diagnosis only. True cases of
Diphtheria would then be sent into the Isolation
Hospital and others referred to their medical man.
Further it may be noted that taking the average
mortality in the Borough for the last four years the
perfected administration of Anti-toxin would save ten
lives every year.
In order more completely to keep this disease
under control it would be advisable that after
supposed recovery swabbings from the throat should
be sent to the B.I.P.M. until the throat is shown to
be free from the disease and the patient incapable
of further spreading the disease. It is always
advisable to bear in mind that the chief aim of a
sanitary authority is to prevent the incursion of
epidemic disease and not to stop its progress after it
has broken out.