THE STERILIZATION OF WOOLEN BLANKETS AND UNIFORMS

Abstract

The prevention and control of contagious diseases in Army cantonments and base hospitals is a complex problem which requires special measures to be worked out in sufficient detail to result, so far as possible, in automatic execution. Contact infection, which includes hand-to-mouth infection and infection by the respiratory route, is accepted as being fundamentally important in the prophylaxis of contagions. A scheme, to be effective, should provide for measures involving early diagnosis, prevention of cross-infection in ambulances en route to the base hospital, rigid examination of patients in the receiving ward, the use of throat cultures to determine proper grouping of patients in wards, development of the cubicle system on the principle of isolation in each case, the wearing of face masks, and rigid ward discipline to develop and maintain the so-called aseptic technic. Important among preventive measures is proper sterilization of woolen blankets and uniforms. The sterilizer issued the