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Disinfection
PUBLIC H E A L T H .
986
¢orrcspogdc.¢¢. The Editor does not accept responsibility for the opinions of correspondents. REGINALD DUDFIELD. Dear Sir,--I think that the record of my respected friends' career in your last month's issue was incomplete in so far as no reference was made to one very great service he performed for the benefit of Medical Officers of Health in general and their Society in particular. I believe it was in 1909 that a Special Committee of the Society's Council was formed to create a new set of "Articles of Association" for the Society's adoption. This Committee consisted of nine members and included myself and Dudfield, so I can readily testify to the time and labour he devoted to this important work, as chairman. Just a personal note, A mental picture of " R e g g i e " must include a perfectly glossy top hat, a monocle and a pair of spats: without these, no picture of my departed friend could be recognised as genuine. On one point I must confess we were never agreed for I have always been (as my old colleagues on the Council will remember) an earnest advocate of so-called "trade union" methods, where likely to improve the pay and prospects of the Public Health Service. I am, yours faithfully,
SIDNEY C. LAWRENCE, late M.O.H. and S.M.O. of Edmonton, London. May, 17th, 19~5. DISINFECTION. Sir,mA debt of gratitude is due, I think, to Dr. Wheatley for his able exposition on disinfection in your last issue. I fully agree with its conclusions, and perhaps may be permitted to add the following summary : - 1.--Smallpox and open Tuberculosis are the two infectious diseases par excellence in which as complete disinfection as possible should be carried out of both fomites and premises. 2.--Typhus, Relapsing and Trench Fevers, being spread through the intermediary of lice require not merely disinfection, but de-lousing of patients and contacts and disinfestation of premises. 3 . - - I n the Typho-dysenteric group, apart from the disinfection of excreta and fomites, and the taking of necessary precautions with regard more
Jo~.,
particularly to certain articles of diet, disinfection of rooms, apart from general cleanliness, does not appear to be of much, if any, practical use. 4 . - - A fourth group includes the great majority of our common infectious diseases, such as Scarlet Fever, Chicken-pox, Cerebro-spinal Fever, etc., where the need for home disinfection lacks support mainly for the following reasons : These diseases are spread by carriers and their causative germs either do not so far as we know exist for any appreciable length of time apart from the human host, or can only do so under particular laboratory conditions, although infection may be temporarily retained by recently soiled fomites as in Scarlet Fever, and any disinfection would appear to be necessarily limited to these articles as Dr. Wheatley points out. Into the relative advantages of chemical disinfection and domestic cleanliness I do not propose to enter. I am, etc., Yours faithfully, K. SIMPSON, Medical Officer of Health. Barking, 15th May, 1925. H O W QUACKS F L O U R I S H .
S i r , - - I shall be grateful if you will kindly publish the enclosed correspondence. The vital point is that the Minister of Health and the Law Officers of the Crown have now presented a New Charter to the quacks, enabling them to sell expensive remedies instead of cheap disinfect.. ants for the prevention of venereal disease. The Ministry has for years been claiming that by curing disease it is preventing it; it can therefore have no logical objection to quacks claiming that they are preventing disease when they are really selling supposed curatives. Of course, the quacks are not in business for the good of their health, but rather to exploit other people's actual or feared lack of health; therefore, they will naturally prefer to sell pills and capsules " worth a guinea a box," in preference to disinfecting lotion at a penny a bottle, or v.d. preventive ointment at a few pence per tube. The only way to stop the quacks is to authorize the sale of standard prophylactic outfits with suitable directions, and prohibit the sale of unauthorised medicaments. May I suggest that, The V.D. Act, 1917, having proved defective, Public Health Officers should unite in advocating the following : - -
986
¢orrcspogdc.¢¢. The Editor does not accept responsibility for the opinions of correspondents. REGINALD DUDFIELD. Dear Sir,--I think that the record of my respected friends' career in your last month's issue was incomplete in so far as no reference was made to one very great service he performed for the benefit of Medical Officers of Health in general and their Society in particular. I believe it was in 1909 that a Special Committee of the Society's Council was formed to create a new set of "Articles of Association" for the Society's adoption. This Committee consisted of nine members and included myself and Dudfield, so I can readily testify to the time and labour he devoted to this important work, as chairman. Just a personal note, A mental picture of " R e g g i e " must include a perfectly glossy top hat, a monocle and a pair of spats: without these, no picture of my departed friend could be recognised as genuine. On one point I must confess we were never agreed for I have always been (as my old colleagues on the Council will remember) an earnest advocate of so-called "trade union" methods, where likely to improve the pay and prospects of the Public Health Service. I am, yours faithfully,
SIDNEY C. LAWRENCE, late M.O.H. and S.M.O. of Edmonton, London. May, 17th, 19~5. DISINFECTION. Sir,mA debt of gratitude is due, I think, to Dr. Wheatley for his able exposition on disinfection in your last issue. I fully agree with its conclusions, and perhaps may be permitted to add the following summary : - 1.--Smallpox and open Tuberculosis are the two infectious diseases par excellence in which as complete disinfection as possible should be carried out of both fomites and premises. 2.--Typhus, Relapsing and Trench Fevers, being spread through the intermediary of lice require not merely disinfection, but de-lousing of patients and contacts and disinfestation of premises. 3 . - - I n the Typho-dysenteric group, apart from the disinfection of excreta and fomites, and the taking of necessary precautions with regard more
Jo~.,
particularly to certain articles of diet, disinfection of rooms, apart from general cleanliness, does not appear to be of much, if any, practical use. 4 . - - A fourth group includes the great majority of our common infectious diseases, such as Scarlet Fever, Chicken-pox, Cerebro-spinal Fever, etc., where the need for home disinfection lacks support mainly for the following reasons : These diseases are spread by carriers and their causative germs either do not so far as we know exist for any appreciable length of time apart from the human host, or can only do so under particular laboratory conditions, although infection may be temporarily retained by recently soiled fomites as in Scarlet Fever, and any disinfection would appear to be necessarily limited to these articles as Dr. Wheatley points out. Into the relative advantages of chemical disinfection and domestic cleanliness I do not propose to enter. I am, etc., Yours faithfully, K. SIMPSON, Medical Officer of Health. Barking, 15th May, 1925. H O W QUACKS F L O U R I S H .
S i r , - - I shall be grateful if you will kindly publish the enclosed correspondence. The vital point is that the Minister of Health and the Law Officers of the Crown have now presented a New Charter to the quacks, enabling them to sell expensive remedies instead of cheap disinfect.. ants for the prevention of venereal disease. The Ministry has for years been claiming that by curing disease it is preventing it; it can therefore have no logical objection to quacks claiming that they are preventing disease when they are really selling supposed curatives. Of course, the quacks are not in business for the good of their health, but rather to exploit other people's actual or feared lack of health; therefore, they will naturally prefer to sell pills and capsules " worth a guinea a box," in preference to disinfecting lotion at a penny a bottle, or v.d. preventive ointment at a few pence per tube. The only way to stop the quacks is to authorize the sale of standard prophylactic outfits with suitable directions, and prohibit the sale of unauthorised medicaments. May I suggest that, The V.D. Act, 1917, having proved defective, Public Health Officers should unite in advocating the following : - -