Air Hygiene in Dressing-Rooms for Burns or Major Wounds

Sterilization of Woollen Fabrics

“…Of the two, dust is probably responsible for greater degrees of air contamination (Hare and MacKenzie, 1946;Duguid and Wallace, 1948). Such infected dust arises for the most part from the movement of fabrics-for example, blankets, clothes (van den Ende, Lush, and Edward, 1940;Green, Challinor, andDuguid, 1945 Duguid andWallace, 1948), bandages (Bourdillon and Colebrook, 1946), and handkerchiefs (Dumbell, Lovelock, and Lowbury, 1948), and to a somewhat less extent from floor-sweeping (Green, Challinor, and Duguid, 1945), although much of this floor dust has come in the first place from fabrics.…”

“…Correct ventilation can clear the air fairly rapidly (Bourdillon and Colebrook, 1946). To a large extent, however, control has depended upon preventing the release of dust, bv oiling in the case of blankets (Thomas and van den Ende, 1941) and floors (van den Ende, Lush, and Edward.…”

“…Bourdillon and Colebrook (1946) state that, "whilst a freshly laundered gown or clean sheet is almost sterile, all woollen or flannel articles must be regarded as infected. " Colebrook, Gibson, Todd, Clark, Brown, and Anderson (1944) reported finding haemolytic streptococci in freshly laundered blankets in a hospital and, at the same time, in burns, both organisms being of the same type.…”

“…As Bourdillon and Colebrook (1946) state: " Whilst clean linen and cotton goods are almost sterile, flannel and woollen goods are in a very different category, since in most laundries they are not heated to a bactericidal temperature." In the present case blankets are churned for 10 minutes at 430 C., and staphylococci in test squares of blanket survive the procedure readily.…”

A Study of Burns and Scalds in Children

“…It appears that, with only ordinary hospital facilities availabld, cases with lesions affecting more than 40 per cent. of the body surface do not survive beyond a few weeks; with specially equipped units this could almost certainly be improved upon (Bourdillon and Colebrook, 1946). On the other hand, small children can die from fluid loss when the local lesion is neither deep nor extensive, and in this type of case plasma therapy has altered the outlook completely.…”