CHAPTER XVI 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS 



From the facts outlined it is very easy to draw certain 

 practical suggestions for dealing with contagious diseases. 



Isolation. In the case of highly contagious skin diseases, 

 such as scarlet fever, measles, smallpox, etc., the patient 

 must be isolated from the rest of the household as com- 

 pletely as possible. This should be done by confining 

 him to one room and allowing no one to enter except 

 those necessarily engaged in caring for him. 



The same general treatment may be applied in diseases 

 characterized by coughing, like whooping cough and con- 

 sumption. Diphtheria, also, though not distinctly a cough- 

 ing disease, is distributed by breath that is forcibly exhaled 

 by the patient, and the seriousness of the disease makes 

 it necessary to adopt isolation. While it is manifest that 

 the only means of absolutely avoiding contagion from 

 tuberculosis and whooping cough is to isolate the patient, 

 it is also clear that complete isolation of a sufferer from 

 whooping cough or tuberculosis is rarely possible in an 

 ordinary household. Diphtheria is such a serious disease, 

 so rapidly fatal, and its course is usually so brief, that com- 

 plete isolation is not only feasible but necessary. The 

 other two diseases last so long that isolation is generally 

 very burdensome, difficult, or impossible. It is well to 

 remember that in such diseases periods of coughing arc 



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