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Prevention of Communicable Disease: Consumption
Impure air and deficient sunlight favor the development of the bacillus. For this reason a consumptive is more frequently met with in the crowded parts of cities, where houses are built closely together, air cannot circulate freely, and sunlight does not enter. Overcrowded, poorly ventilated houses, offices and workshops, all tend to spread the disease. Consumption is much less mon where people live in separate houses. com- Dirt, dampness and darkness are three of the most active allies of the tuberculosis germ. On the other hand, sunshine, pure air and cleanliness are its greatest enemies. It is highly desirable for this reason that you keep your home perfectly clean and constantly remove from it dust and dirt. Every room should have a thorough spring and fall house cleaning each year. Rooms which have been occupied by consumptives frequently become infected with the germs. Such rooms should never be used without having been previously disinfected. Remember that the most active agent for spreading tuberculosis is the spit of the consumptive. If this is thoroughly burned destroyed at once, there is little danger of infection. or If the body is weakened by overwork, or by dissipation or by excesses of any kind, the individual is more apt to contract tuberculosis than if he keeps himself strong and well.
In fact, healthy persons, living a proper life, when infected frequently get over the disease so quickly and so readily that they do not even know that they have had it.
People addicted to the use of alcohol in any form are more likely to have tuberculosis than others.
The Cure of the Disease. - Consumption is no longer the hopeless disease of the past-it is curable.
The earlier it is detected in an individual case, the surer the cure. Therefore, help your friend, your neighbor, your relative, to recognize and treat his disease at the start.
If you should be unfortunate enough to be afflicted with tuberculosis or consumption, first of all get the advice of a reliable physician, and follow his instructions conscientiously and religiously. There is no antitoxin for treating tuberculosis such as is used for diphtheria. The only cure we know for tuberculosis is to increase the bodily strength, so that the body will resist and gradually destroy the germ. This is a slow process. Its principal means are plenty of fresh air all the time, plenty of good food, rest, freedom from worry and out-of-door life.
Medicines are of comparatively little use in the cure of consumption. Patent medicines do not cure consumption. Most of them are alcoholic drinks in disguise, which are dangerous to the consumptive. Sanatoria.- For the best treatment of tuberculosis, so as to afford the patient outdoor treatment as much as possible, special hospitals, called sanatoria, have been erected in all parts of the United States and Europe. It is highly desirable, in order to cure the consumptive as rapidly as possible, that he be treated in such a sanatorium. There are, however, as yet not sufficient of these to accommodate everybody, and for this and for other reasons it is frequently necessary for the patient to be treated at home. If the latter method be resorted to, it should be done under the advice of a physician.
Home Treatment. -The physician will tell you how to carry on this home treatment in the best manner.
A person who has pulmonary tuberculosis, or consumption, is not dangerous to have in the house if he is careful and clean, and if he follows the usual rules laid down to prevent infection of other members of the family. The patient's window should be open day and night and he should occupy the room alone. Preferably there should be no carpet or rug on the floor. The sheets and the body linen should be frequently washed and well boiled. The room should be dusted with a damp cloth or a damp broom. The food which he eats should be used by him exclusively and should be well boiled.
The Prevention of the Disease.- To prevent consumption, two things are required: (1) the removal of the source of contagion; (2) the removal of the predisposing cause. These can be accomplished, (1) by collecting and destroying the germs in the consumptive's spit, and (2) by keeping the body in good general health, so that it will be able to resist the germs.
The consumptive, if he carefully destroys all his spit, is harmless. He should preferably use paper napkins, which can be burned immediately.
They should not be carried loose in the pocket after using. When coughing or sneezing, he should hold one of these before his mouth. If the handkerchief is ever used for this purpose it should be immediately disinfected, by being placed either in boiling water or in a 3 per cent solution of carbolic acid. He should spit into a pasteboard sputum cup, which at the end of each day can be burned, or into a vessel which can be easily and completely cleaned daily. The ordinary spittoon is most difficult to clean, and should never be used by a consumptive. When the consumptive is at work, riding on the street car, or traveling, he should use a pocket sputum cup or flask which can be kept tightly closed until he can empty it at night.
The Careful Consumptive is Not Dangerous.-Tuberculosis is not contagious by the breath (except when the consumptive coughs or sneezes), or in the same way as smallpox, or diphtheria, or scarlet fever, but through the sputum.
Even though every effort is made to collect and destroy the germ it is probable that every one of us, on account of the prevalence of the disease and the large number of con- PREVENTION OF COMMUNICABLE DISEASE 165 sumptives who are careless or do not understand the importance of destroying their spit, will receive at some time or other the germs in our lungs. It is most important, therefore, that the lungs be in proper condition and that the general health be good.
Thorough ventilation of bedrooms is one of the most important means to this end. Too often the bedroom is small, dark and unventilated, the windows sometimes being nailed shut.
To nail one's bedroom window shut is to drive a nail in one's coffin. We spend more hours each day in our bedrooms than in any other room in the house, yet they are usually the smallest, worst lighted, and least ventilated.
Sleeping out of doors is urged upon the consumptive, and it is probable that most of us would be in far better condition to resist tuberculosis if we slept out of doors a good portion of the year.
Excessive hours of hard work, whether on the farm or in the factory, lower the vitality. Insufficient food or indigestible food also injures the health. The steady drinking of alcoholic liquors, whether or not we become drunk, injures the body.