Typhoid Fever

(ti’-foid fe’-ver). A continued fever, usually attended with ulceration of the bowels, and a rose-coloured eruption on the abdomen about the seventh day. The patient is kept in bed and not allowed to sit up. Fever diet every two hours, day and night (any solid food may cause perforation of the bowels and death). Temperature and pulse to be taken every four hours for the first twenty-one days. Take precautions against bed-sores. If ordered to sponge the patient, a little toilet vinegar is very refreshing; cold packs or bedside baths may be ordered. The fever may last three weeks or longer, and is often attended by other complications. Great accuracy is needed in reporting symptoms. Typhoid is infectious through the excreta, and the nurse must be careful to keep a solution of carbolic in the bed-pan to well flush the drains and put down a liberal supply of disinfectant. All the patient’s body linen and bed-clothing should be soaked in carbolic before being sent to the wash; all crockery and utensils used for the patient kept apart from others. The nurse must be careful to keep her nails short and well scrub her hands after attending to the patient. — s. 154 —