Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1877 — Precautions Against Scarlet Fever. [ARTICLE]

Precautions Against Scarlet Fever.

The Boston Board of Health has sent a copy of the following to every householder in that city: “The Board of Health issues the following circular of recommendation with the hope that those not familiar with the care of scarlet, fever may be benefited thereby. Scarlet fever is like smallpox in its power to spread readily from person to person. It is highly contagious. The disease shows its first sigu in about one week after exposure, as a general rule, and persons who escape the illness during a fortnight after exposure may feel themselves safe from attack. Scarlet fever, scarlatina, canker rash and rash fever are names of one and the same dangerous disease. When a case of scarlet fever occurs in any family the sick person should be placed in a room apart from the other inmates of the house, and should be nursed as far as possible by one person only. The sick chamber should be well-wanned, exposed to sunlight and well aired. Its furniture should be such as would permit of cleansing without injury, and all extra articles, such as ‘window drapery and woollen carpsts, should be removed from the room during the sickness. The family should not mingle with other people. Visitors to an infected house should be warned of the presence of a dangerous disease therein, and children especially should not be admitted. “On recovery the sick person should not mingle with the well until the roughness of the skin, due to the disease, shall have disappeared. A month is considered an average period during which isolation is needed. The clothing, before being worn or used by the patient or the nursed should be cleansed by boiling for at least one hour, or, if that cannot be done, by free and prolonged exposure to outdoor air and sunlight. The walls of the room should be dry-rubbed and!he cloths used for the purpose should be burned without previous shaking. The ceiling should be scraped and whitened; the floor should be washed with soap and water, and carbolic acid nlay be added to the water (one pint to three or four gallons). The infected clothing should be cleansed by itself and not sent to the laundry. “ In case of death from scarlet fever the funeral services should be strictly private, and the corpse should not be exposed to view. Because children are especially liable to take and to spread* scarlet fever, mid because schools afford a free opportunity for this, the Board of Health has excluded from school every child from any family in which a case of the disease has occurred, and has decreed that the ab-> sence shall continue four weeks from the beginning of the attack, except in cases subject to the discretion of the Board.” The Suez Canal is proving successfu as a financial venture. The profits for 1876 are estimated at $5,000,000. A little more than one-half of this is required for interest on the debt of the company, leaving nearly $2,500,000 for dividends.