i 5 8 INFECTION AND IMMUNITY 



entire surface of the body. At all events it is very 

 contagious, and the infection clings to clothing and 

 other articles which have been in contact with the 

 sick. This being the case, our chief reliance for the 

 prevention of the disease must be on the isolation of 

 the sick, and careful disinfection of all articles that 

 have been exposed to infection and of the patient's 

 body and excreta. This is to be accomplished by the 

 same measures recommended in the case of smallpox. 



Owing to the fact that typhus fever is communi- 

 cated by personal contact, and in the absence of any 

 known method of establishing immunity by inocula- 

 tion, physicians and nurses are especially liable to 

 contract the disease. During the epidemics in Ireland, 

 between the years 1813 and 1848, it is reported that 

 568 physicians contracted typhus fever and of these 

 132 died. During the Crimean War, the mortality 

 from this disease, among physicians and nurses, was 

 very great. 



One attack of typhus usually confers immunity 

 upon the individual, but second attacks may occur. 

 The mortality from the disease is slight among child- 

 ren under ten years of age, but increases with age, 

 being highest between the ages of thirty and fifty 



(41.97 #) 



