Yellow fever: its nature, diagnosis, treatment and prophylaxis, and quarantine regulations relating thereto / by Officers of the US Marine-Hospital Service, together with an abstraction of the report of the medical officers detailed as a commission to investigate the cause of yellow fever.

  • United States Public Health Service
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Yellow fever: its nature, diagnosis, treatment and prophylaxis, and quarantine regulations relating thereto / by Officers of the US Marine-Hospital Service, together with an abstraction of the report of the medical officers detailed as a commission to investigate the cause of yellow fever. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    they are undergoing their detention. To require the disinfection, when they leave, of the clothing which they take with them is wroug m prin- ciple If this stuff, or any in the house, bo infected, these people are continuously exposed to infection and should not be released. If it be not infected disinfection is not needed. By going through the premises carefully when the isolation is begun we can very generally determine if there be anything in the house which requires disinfection, and if there is it shouM be disinfected then, not later. It was on this principle that in 1897 the camp grounds and Heart- ease Park wore isolated from Biloxi, with which they form almost one town, and the residents given pratique after ten days. The same was done in 1893 about Waynesville, Ga., and in both cases a considerable number of people relieved from quarantine restrictions with safety. It is thus seen how the quarantine laid against a town pending investigation will be modified both by the amount of infection and by the sanitary measures taken. The fact that it will be so modified is an added inducement to the town to take proper sanitary measures. COMPLETE QUARANTINE. I do not propose to discuss the methods of putting on a general quarantine against a town, as the problem varies ad infinitum. Whether a cordon forbidding all direct egress of persons, etc., be established; or whether it be limited to guards on the general lines of travel, includ- ing dirt roads ; or simply to railroad and water craft, will depend, as will the degree of communication authorized, on local conditions. The first, of course, should give the most security. For a large place it is generally impracticable, owing mainly to the territory immediately surrounding a large town maintaining direct communication with it, either unlimited or surrounded by certain safeguards, as daylight communication. This makes the extent of territory exposed to infec- tion too large to be surrounded by a cordon. Whether this direct com- munication should be permitted by the health authorities depends on the risk of spread of infection outside of (and in) this neutral terri- tory, and must be decided on its own merits for each case. It increases this risk. A word about daylight communication. Briefly, this is direct communication with an infected town. Persons being allowed to visit it during the daytime—hours generally 10 to 4—under pledge to enter no residence, attend to their business, and return home. People living in the infected town are not allowed to enter the clean one, and certain classes of (or all) merchandise are barred. It depends on two principles: ^ (1) That the infection of yellow fever is mainly confined to the habita- tions of men and their environments. [2] That the disease is not liable to be contracted W the daytime.
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