Contagious disease

“ The contagious disease, spreading from the head to the members—from the Pope to lesser prelates—has spread far and wide, so that scarcely any one is to be found who does right, and who is free from infection. ”

“ The theory is, that any contagious disease can be eradicated; or, at all events, limited within a very slender area; and that various diseases are in reality contagious, such as typhoid fever and consumption, where the ordinary medical and general mind does not admit the fact of the contagiousness. If we resort to the primitive processes of counting noses, or listening for the largest amount of shouting, we shall decide against the theory ”

“ Loathsome contagious diseases include those whose presence excites abhorrence in others, and which are essentially chronic, such as favus, ringworm of the scalp, parasitic fungus diseases, Madura foot, leprosy and venereal disease. Dangerous contagious diseases are such as trachoma, filariasis, hookworm infection, amœbic dysentery, and endemic hematuria. ”

“ Every mother should know the elementary principles involved in the treatment of contagious diseases. They are contagious because they may be conveyed from one individual to another or because a person nursing a victim of a contagious disease may carry that disease to another person without having the disease herself. ”

“ The quantity of the turbid liquid which attaches itself to the finest needle-point suffices to infect any amount of the infusion, just as the vaccine lymph taken up on the point of a surgeon's lancet spreads disease through the whole body. Here, also, as in the case of contagious disease, there was a period of incubation. In proof of what the lecturer had stated that the contagion of these communicable diseases was not gaseous or liquid, but solid particles, he would describe an experiment he had made only a few weeks since. ”

“ If disease were to break out in his house, and it were known, he would be requested by both men and masters to leave the shop until a clean bill of health was received and his place disinfected.
Mr. Cross: That is what I wanted to know. Then the object of your deputation to-day is this—that a workman, wherever he may be employed (whether in a workshop or in his own house) , if he should be living with a wife or child suffering from a contagious disease, he should be prevented from spreading that disease. ”

“ Every epidemic that sweeps through our communities is a testimony to the crying need of education in regard to such simple facts as the source of infectious material, the methods of its distribution, and the means of rendering it harmless.
PREVENTION IN INOCULATION. It has long been recognised that in most cases recovery from one attack of a contagious disease renders an individual more or less immune against a second attack. It is unusual for an individual to have the same contagious disease twice. ”

“ In the latter, the name of the man, date of admission, and nature of disease, is placed over the bed of each patient, which in any contagious disease gives timely warning to any one fearing infection. ”

“ The entire class of contagious diseases of man can be suspected on just grounds of being of bacterial origin. All analogies, and not a few separate observations, are in favor of this view, while against it no valid argument can be adduced; but it must be admitted that the absolute proof is as yet wanting. Many diseases also, not known to be contagious, like pneumonia, rheumatism, and Bright's disease, have been found associated with parasites, the rôle of which is yet uncertain. ”

“ We simply do not obey its behests. The germ theory—now no longer a theory in the case of tubercular consumption—tells us that we have to do with a contagious disease. Now there is no theoretical reason why a purely contagious disease like tuberculosis cannot be exterminated. If we can prevent the spread of contagion at all, we can prevent it entirely. The enormous value of preventive measures, isolation, disinfection, and quarantine, is well illustrated in history of cholera, typhus fever, and yellow fever in the United States. ”

“ Arm’s length is the striking distance of a contagious disease. There’s a truth for all of us to remember all the time.”
“If it is a truth,” challenged Mrs. Sharpless. “One of the surest and one of the most important,” averred the Health Master. “The only substance that carries the contagion of diphtheria or measles is the mucus from the nose or throat of an infected person. As far as that can be coughed or sneezed is the danger area. Of course, any article contaminated with it is dangerous also. But a hygienically conducted schoolroom is as safe a place as could be found. ”

“ Using the word contagious in its proper sense of communicable by contact, and regarding the typhoid-poison as a parasite whose nidus is in the glands of the bowel, we are led to the conclusion that the disease to which it gives rise, though undoubtedly infectious, can scarcely be contagious. We know from our experience that it is not so; for it never spreads in hospitals, and attendants on the sick suffer no more than other people. ”

“ A disease is contagious when it is transmitted from the sick to the well by personal communication or contact, more or less intimate; and all contagious diseases are infectious—i. e., they are due to the introduction into the body of a susceptible individual of a living germ. But all infectious diseases are not contagious. Thus smallpox, scarlet fever, measles, diphtheria, influenza, etc., are infectious diseases which are contagious ”

“ A disease like measles or small-pox, which can be transmitted from person to person, without immediate contact between the two, is termed infectious. In these cases the285 infection is conveyed by mucus expectorated or by dust blown about, or carried in apparel, etc., from the first patient. Such diseases may also, of course, be communicated by direct contact. If direct contact between the sick and well is indispensable for the transmission of a disease it is called contagious. There is no such hard line in nature, although some diseases can be more easily communicated than others. ”

“ In contagious diseases, infection proceeds chiefly from personal contact with a diseased person or objects that have been touched by him. In malarial diseases there is no danger from personal contact; the disease resulting clearly from a poisoned atmosphere. ”

“ As a consequence, the death-rate was 26·47 in 1880, 31·08 in 1881, and 29·64 in 1882.
In overcrowded places the danger is great when contagious disease makes its appearance. The spread of such diseases as typhus, measles, and whooping-cough is very much favoured by overcrowding. ”

“ Contagious matter is lodged in goods of a loose and soft texture, which being packed up, and carried into other countries, let out, when opened, the imprisoned seeds of contagion, and produce the disease whenever the air is disposed to give them force, "otherwise they may be dispersed without any considerable ill effects." ”

“ The word infection is applied to the vehicle by which a malady is transmitted from one person to another by the air, and with or without actual contact. The type of infectious disease is small-pox, and this is also, as is well-known, a highly contagious complaint. Scarlet-fever, measles, whooping-cough, mumps, etc., are likewise both contagious and infectious, and make up the class of disorders popularly known as diseases which are "catching." ”

“ That the termination of epidemics is peculiar, since they cease suddenly at the exact period when the greatest number of persons is affected by them, and when the greatest mortality prevails. This fact is inexplicable under the supposition that epidemics owe their spread from person to person. To suppose that a disease which is propagated by contagion can rapidly decline and even suddenly cease, just when most persons are affected and the mortality is greatest—that is, when the contagious matter is proved to be in its most active and malignant state—is utterly absurd. ”

“ Contagion is properly a poisoning of one individual from contact with a diseased individual in some way known or unknown. It may be conveyed indirectly through clothes, etc., or other person; but always comes from some person sick with the same disease. Diseases may be both infectious and contagious. Nearly all the epidemic diseases of infancy are both infectious and contagious and accompanied by fever. ”

“ It has been bacteriologically demonstrated that the organisms of various contagious diseases thus find a lodging place in our cars and public places, and experiments on animals, in which the inoculation has developed diseases, have shown that these organisms retain their vitality in these places and may propagate disease under favorable conditions. ”

“ In all epidemics which increase to such a degree as to become contagious, it is of importance to distinguish which of these causes are the more powerful, the predisposing or epidemic causes, which originate the proneness to the disease, or the proximate causes, among which, in the generality of cases, contagion is the most prominent. ”

“ There is no doubt but that the contagious principle displays its greatest activities in connection with the contents of the lesions undergoing a change from the vesicular to the pustular phases, though from the beginning to the end of the disease it is probable that all the tissues and fluids of the infected body are in various degrees capable of producing the malady in those who are unprotected. ”

“ Forewarned is forearmed, and it has been found that to know the cause of a disease is a long step toward avoiding it. As some of our contagious and epidemic diseases have been studied in the light of bacteriological knowledge, it has been found possible to determine not only their cause, but also how infection is brought about, and consequently how contagion may be avoided. ”

“ Every now and then epidemics arise from the extension of the disease among those members of a community who have not been in some measure protected by a previous attack. There are few diseases so contagious as measles, and its rapid spread in epidemic outbreaks is no doubt due to the well-ascertained fact that contagion is most potent in the earlier stages, even before its real nature has been evinced by the characteristic appearances on the skin. ”

“ First, that they are contagious and absolutely dependent upon a living germ, whose spread can be prevented; and secondly, and practically even more important, that more than half the deaths from them are due, not to the disease itself, but to complications occurring during the period of recovery, caused, for the most part, by gross carelessness on the part of the mother or nurse. ”

“ If you go into the company of persons that are sick with the measles, hooping-cough, smallpox, or any contagious disorder, in a short time you will be taken with the same disease. The very atmosphere of the room where they stay is full of contagion, and you will draw it in with your breath. ”

“ Scarlet fever, while contagious at all periods, is probably most so during the period of desquamation. The organism may cling to furniture, clothing, etc., and reproduce the disease after very long periods. The contagion may be carried by persons coming in contact with the sick, or the disease may be transmitted through the air of the sick-room or through clothing, utensils, etc., which have been used by the sick. ”

“ When the germs of the virus mature in the living being, ready for reproduction in another person, they produce the acute contagious diseases, including small-pox, chicken-pox, scarlet fever, typhns fever, relapsing fever; measles, miliary fever, influenza, whooping-cough, and hydrophobia. ”

“ Fresh air, moderate exercise, good food, and some mild nerve depressant is all that can be done. The disease is very contagious and is usually transmitted directly from the sick person to the well person. It may, however, be carried in clothing, particularly in handkerchiefs and towels. Like measles, if it gains a foothold in an uncivilized community, it attains the size of an epidemic or plague with very fatal results. It seems to have a great power over girls and children, particularly those whose vitality is below the normal. ”

“ It does not follow that all cases are contagious, nor equally so, but the recognition of the contagious form satisfactorily explains the prevalence of the disease in one stable while an adjoining one escapes, and the eruption of new cases in a stable after an animal affected with the disease or convalescent from it has been introduced. ”

“ Dirty food and the use of articles soiled with choleraic discharges may also convey it, but most authorities assert that it is never carried through the medium of the air—that is, the disease is contagious, but, unlike scarlet fever and measles, is not infectious. Physicians and nurses work among it with impunity, even in its most virulent form, so long as rigid cleanliness of person and clothing is observed. ”

“ We do not yet know how the poison obtains entrance to the body. Hence, the need for thorough disinfection.
Age, Occurrence, Susceptibility.—All children exposed to the disease do not contract the disease. It is less contagious than measles. A person who is exposed once, and does not take it, may take it at a future exposure. It occurs at any age and in all countries. It occurs oftener in autumn (September) and winter (February) . Isolated cases occur, and then it is called sporadic. This disease attacks nursing children less frequently than older children. ”