Connecticut Western News

How to Avoid Contagion—The Proper Treatment of the Sick.

For several weeks past, says a New York paper, there is no need of alarm, as will be seen from the following interview had by Elisha Harris to a reporter, the substance of which is given below.

Diphtheria. Dr. Harris said, is not on the increase, and is much less fatal than it was six months ago. Where it now causes twenty-five deaths a week in the city, in November and December last more than twice that number were recorded. No other disease has prevailed so fatally, however, nor with such epidemic virulence during the past year. In a Staten Island town an entire family was carried away by diphtheria, and a similar instance occurred in Thirty-eighth street, between Seventh and Eighth avenues. These deaths were in well-kept houses, and among people of the best classes. It seems to have been the rule that the epidemic was more fatal in the houses of the rich than among the poor in tenements. During the early period of the increased prevalence of diphtheria last autumn the district west of Broadway and north of Twenty-third street suffered more than the east side. But in the winter, and since, the east side has suffered equally with the west.

The steady continuance of this disease with scarlatina, though not proving as fatal, is a fact of importance. The records of the Board of Health show that there were thirty-four new cases for the week ending June 6, and thirty-seven more for the succeeding week. There are probably in this city and the Westchester Wards over 200 cases of diphtheria at present. There are, besides, many cases that have not been reported to the Board of Health, because the physician may not have recognized the disease as true diphtheria and having once pronounced it scarlatina or something else, would not reverse his original opinion in his death certificate. The deaths upon Staten Island were not recognized as from diphtheria at first, and were afterward discovered to be due to that disease only by accident.

The cause of diphtheria, and especially of the prevailing epidemic, are similar to the causes of scarlatina, measles, and other diseases of childhood. No one can doubt that the disease is contagious, though not in the same way as typhoid and yellow fever, small-pox, etc. The dampness and miasmatic condition of the atmosphere has been thought to influence its transmission.

The utmost care should be taken to prevent well persons from entering the rooms of the sick merely to pay them a visit.

An eminent physician says that he has treated every case of this disease with a strict regard to the sources of contagion-the excreted matter from mouth and nostrils. The clothes, handkerchiefs and napkins used about the sick should be saturated with simple disinfectants. There is nothing unusual about the present epidemic except that it has so long held sway as the leading contagious disease in this city. Scarlatina has kept pace with it, and owes its power to the same local causes. Diphtheria very often follows cases of convalescent scarlatina. If families keep their dwellings thoroughly dry and well ventilated the peril will be vastly diminished. The Doctor thinks the summer air will reduce the number of cases. A person will get diphtheria by kissing a child sick with it. Some time ago a distinguished physician of Baltimore caught the disease in a singular manner. He was treating a young lady for diphtheria. She sneezed, and he felt a particle enter his nostril. In two days afterward symptoms of the disease appeared, and in an incredibly short time the physician died, in spite of every effort of his skilled associates to save his life.