SUSCEPTIBILITY AND INFECTION 73 



water-supply and thus be transmitted to others, or to 

 contaminate the feet of flies, which, in turn, infect some 

 food. Those which leave the individual in the exhaled 

 air, as tubercle bacilli, pneumococcus, or diphtheria 

 germs, are likely to be inhaled or ingested with food, or 

 they may infect eating or drinking utensils. 



Certain insects may be the means of transmitting in- 

 fection. The fly may carry typhoid, cholera, tubercu- 

 losis; the flea transmits the plague; the mosquito, 

 malaria and yellow fever; the tsetse-fly, sleeping-sick- 

 ness. 



PREVENTION OF INFECTION 



GENERAL PRECAUTIONS FOR NURSES 



The nurse in charge of a case of infectious or contagious 

 disease owes a duty not only to the patient, but to her- 

 self, to the family, and to the public. She should use 

 every care to protect herself from infection, that her 

 usefulness to the patient, the family, and to the public 

 may not be curtailed or destroyed. She should, there- 

 fore, avail herself of every protection possible before 

 entering upon the case. 



In the first place, she should be in perfect health. 

 Any nurse who expects to nurse typhoid fever should 

 have been vaccinated against the infection long enough 

 before going on a case for immunity to have been estab- 

 lished. In diphtheria she should have had an immuniz- 

 ing dose of antitoxin. She should be scrupulously 



