Important: Safety Warning
This page presents medical treatment from an era before modern medicine. The remedies described are ineffective against the conditions named, and some of the ingredients or doses are harmful. Do not use them to treat any illness; consult a qualified medical professional.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
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Preventable Diseases of Children: Flexner
This may be done by withdrawing a sample of the spinal fluid from the spinal column by means of a hypodermic needle. This is a simple procedure when performed by a competent physician, and quite free from danger. If the germs of meningitis are present, both local and state health authorities should be promptly notified and the Flexner serum should be obtained and injected into the spinal column by an experienced physician. Prompt action is imperative, as death will occur in most cases within a few days unless this remedy is administered.
The sick must be kept away from the well. All discharges, especially from the nose and throat, must be thoroughly disinfected. The nurse or attendant in the sick room, the physician and all the members of the family who may have been infected before the nature of the disease was recognized, should thoroughly disinfect the nasal passages and throat by a spray or gargle of one part peroxide of hydrogen to three parts of water, or with equal parts of water and liquor antisepticus U. S. P.
This should be followed by a spray of menthol, gum camphor and liquid alboline. As an immunizing dose, about 10 c. c. of Flexner serum may be injected for three or four days, twenty-four hours apart, in cases of known exposure.
The use of urotropin in doses of from 5 to 10 grains dissolved in water an hour after meal time, three times a day-under the advice of a physician-as a preventive, is also recommended. Observe that if this drug is taken too soon after eating, digestive disturbances may result.
These measures with the ordinary sanitary precautions in the sick room, including disinfection of all excreta, have been found to thoroughly control this disease. Fresh air and sunshine quickly destroy the germs. Quarantine. - Placard the premises and keep the members of the family to themselves until cultures taken from their nasal passages are found to be free from germs of the disease. After recovery or death, disinfect the house thoroughly with formaldehyde or sulphur. The effect of sanitary precautions is shown from the fact that nurses and attendants very rarely contract this disease.