Syphilis of the innocent : a study of the social effects of syphilis on the family and the community with 152 illustrative cases made under a grant from the United States Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board / by Harry C. Solomon and Maida Herman Solomon.

  • Solomon, Harry C. (Harry Caesar), 1889-1982.
Date:
1922
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Syphilis of the innocent : a study of the social effects of syphilis on the family and the community with 152 illustrative cases made under a grant from the United States Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board / by Harry C. Solomon and Maida Herman Solomon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE INDIVIDUAL 5 contagious to others. This contagiousness certainly occurs with the first appearance of the primary sore, and there is a chance that it may be present even earlier. As a rule, several days elapse before the patient seeks advice. During this period he may infect others. As every syphilitic in the primary stage is a most dangerous focus of infection, unless treatment is instituted at once to sterilize the individual, he will continue to be a carrier for a long time. Treatment at this early period is of the utmost importance for the rea¬ sons, first, that it protects others in the community against the infection; second, because the most good can be done to the individual; and third, because with proper care at this time, the patient may avoid becoming a social liability years later. Thus, for its own protection, society has a vital in¬ terest in seeing that the patient receives an early diagnosis and adequate treatment. The care and treatment of syphilis is at least as important to the public as the proper control of smallpox, typhoid fever, or other infections, and it is more prevalent than most of the other infections. Amount of Treatment for Sterilization of Contagiousness; Hospitalization.—Arsphenamin (salvarsan) has the utmost value in the sterilization of the disease, that is, in producing a noncontagious condition. In the majority of cases, three to five injections of this drug лу111 go a long way toward making the patient noncontagious; at any rate, it will cut down the infectivity to such a degree that he is no longer a danger to anyone except those in the very closest contact. The patient must still use great care, of course, to prevent the spread of his disease, and this can best be accomplished by keeping himself and the implements with лvhich he comes in contact away from others. The most satisfactory method of handling the early syphilitic in order to protect others is to hospitalize him at once. Ideally, he should be placed in a hospital as soon as the diagnosis is made. Here he is taught cleanliness and care. In addition, he is immediately placed under vigorous antisyphilitic treatment, consisting of arsphenamin and mercury. At the end of ten days or two weeks, in Avhich period he has received three or more injec-