Tuberculosis Prevention. What Can Every Nurse Do about It?

Abstract

T EACH and practice the fundamental principles of personal hygiene. This formula sounds so simple that one is inclined to consider it unimportant because of its very platitudinous nature. Simple it is indeed, and yet-it probably boasts of more violators than any other known method of communicable-disease control which we now possess. Perhaps its very simplicity has placed it in the group of public health procedures which have seemed unworthy of too much emphasis. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that the practice of the five cardinal factors of personal hygiene are at present basic in the treatment and prevention of tuberculosis. Rest, fresh air, sunshine, adequate diet, and the satisfactory disposal of body discharges are the major subjects which the nurse may teach herself and others if she wishes to make a very real contribution to the prevention of tuberculosis in nurses and other members of the community. And perhaps the greatest of these factors is the disposal of body discharges, foremost of which is sputum. Were it not for the fact that society has approved of certain polite procedures in our human relationships which are definitely concerned with the disposal of sputum, a public health nurse might well hesitate to generalize a function which seems to belong to public health nurses. Covering the mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing, washing the hands before eating, keeping all things out of the mouth except food, water, and the tooth brush, expectorating in proper places, are all procedures which 1 [Italics ours. EDITOR.]