OCR Text |
Show HOSPITAL HUSKS EXTENSIVELY USED ' Increased demands for hospital masks, due at present to the influenza epidemic in various parts of tho country, coun-try, has given rise to the erroneous impression that theso masks are par- tlcularly designed and used exclusive- ly for influenza cases. ; Such is not the case, as explained by medical authorities. These same i masks are used in all up-to-date hospitals hos-pitals all the time in connection with all diseases of a contagious nature. The mask has been brought into particular prominence through the Influenza In-fluenza epidemic, but it is merely, a simple and effective piece of hospital equipment that has been in general use many years. The mask is just as effective and almost, if not wholly, as necessary, in the proper handling of all contagious diseases as the sterilo knifo in surgery. sur-gery. The mask is a protection to doctors, doc-tors, nurses, other patients and the patient pa-tient himself. In modern hospitals all contagious disease patients are required re-quired to wear masks at all times while they are suffering from the malady. mal-ady. At the big military hospitals all patients, pa-tients, immediately upon entering the receiving ward, have a face mask ad-Justed, ad-Justed, and this is worn until the hospital hos-pital doctors diagnose the nature of the ailment. If the patient has no contagious con-tagious disease the mask is removed when he is taken from the receiving ward, and dropped into a sterilizing solution. But if the patient has a contagious con-tagious disease, the mask is kept on and remains on which the patient is in the contagious ward. Still further protection is afforded in the hospitals now by the use of sheets which are hung around the individual in-dividual beds in the contagious wards, thus comparatively isolating each patient pa-tient from the other. |