Prevention of Cholera by California State Board of Health

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 14, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 19.

Prevention of Cholera.

By California State Board of Health

WHAT can be done in the way of prevention locally? Much may be done if the officers of health, or the properly constituted authorities do their duty. Cholera, as was said before, is a preventable disease; its habitat is among a crowd; it revels in filth and decomposing organisms, but failing to find suitable conditions for its growth and maintenance, it dies out. Consequently, the very first thing to be done is for each individual to see that his house, outhouse, and yard is put into a good sanitary condition. Do not wait for any health officer, see to it yourself. Have your drains cleaned out and flushed with water; your privy or cesspool emptied and disinfected immediately. See that your cellar is cleared of all decaying substances, have it thoroughly whitewashed, and all filth, rags, etc., burned. If you have a well, see that the water thereof is not contaminated by drainage from the house or outhouses. If you have the slightest suspicion that it is, boil the water before using, or, better still, shut up that well and dig another away from all chance of such contamination. If you use river water, which is always more or less polluted, see that it is boiled before drinking it, and you will save your health for the trouble. Avoid crowding in sleeping rooms. See that each room is properly ventilated, nothing being so conducive to disease as an overcrowded and ill ventilated apartment. Plenty of fresh, pure air, pure water, and wholesome food, with household and personal cleanliness, will do more to prevent the access of cholera to your dwelling than all the supplications of the credulous, or the nostrums of the charlatan. While there is danger of cholera, or, indeed, any epidemic disease, developing in your midst, it is an act of prudence to avoid excessive fatigue from any source, as the system when tired or exhausted is much more liable to infection and less able to resist it than in other conditions. It is also indispensable that the stomach and bowels be kept in a healthy state by avoiding all unripe fruit, decaying vegetables, fish, flesh, or any food that is not perfectly sweet and fresh. Temperance in all things should be enjoined, and especially in alcoholic beverages, as it is found by experience that the intemperate, or those addicted to drinking intoxicating fluids habitually, are the first to die in an epidemic of cholera. Nature knows no mercy in dealing with the violators of Nature's laws; if her laws are transgressed the punishment is swift and certain. Food should not be kept in the same room with the sick from any infectious disease; neither should that unconsumed by the sick be used by others, but either burned or disposed of in some other safe way.—California State Board of Health.