active
agents in distributing the communicable diseases. After handling the
patient or anything that the patient has touched, and whenever she
leaves the patient's room, she must scrub her hands thoroughly with warm
water, soap, and a nail brush. She should not soil her hands
unnecessarily, even though she intends to scrub them later. She must
remember for her own protection to keep her hands away from her mouth
and face, and to cleanse them with special care just before eating. If
disinfection is needed in addition to the scrubbing, she must use
conscientiously whatever solution the doctor orders.

At the same time that she is caring for a patient with a communicable
disease, the attendant ought not to care for children or other members
of the family, she ought not to prepare food, and she ought not to
handle dishes or utensils used by other persons. Every day, however,
many women are doing just these things, and it is true that in many
instances no bad results are observed. Yet if any arrangement to insure
safety can possibly be made, it is inexcusable to run the risk of
spreading diseases which kill thousands of persons every year and injure
many more for life.

When home conditions render adequate care and strict isolation of the
patient impossible, hospital care should be seriously considered. No
personal or sentimental objections should be allowed to influence the
decision, if removing the patient to a hospital is necessary to
safeguard his welfare or the welfare of the family. Hospital care should
be considered especially for patients with typhoid fever, because
untrained persons cannot safely care for patients so seriously ill.
Since a patient with typhoid needs skilled care, and since he greatly
endangers other persons, most authorities consider hospital care
essential unless the patient can have the continuous services of a
trained nurse and almost ideal home conditions. Many cases of typhoid,
it is true, are successfully nursed at home in extremely adverse
conditions by visiting nurses; yet in few kinds of sickness is
continuous care by a graduate nurse more necessary to protect the
community as well as to safeguard the patient himself.

Members of a family in which there is typhoid should be immunized if the
doctor advises it. This process, which is performed by the doctor, in
the majority of cases renders a person immune to typhoid fever for three
or four years.

The question of home or institutional c