Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-12
DISEASE AND DEATH
Brought to Our Gates by a Shipload
of Russian Immigrants.
A YIRULENT TYPE OF TYPHUS
That Nay Speedily Spread and Become a
Plague is Now
ANNOYING NEW YORK HEALTH OFFICERS


ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPArcH.l
NEW YORK, Feb. lion January 80 the
steamship Mossilia, of the Fabre line,
landed at this port III immigrants, Italians
and Russian Hebrews The 450 Italians
were taken aboard at Naples. The 267
Russian Hebrews had gathered at Odessa
from all parts of Southern Russia, and had
arrived here after long voyage OF unusual
roughness.
These Russian Hebrews were divided i'm
mediately among the IL lodging houses pro-
vided by the United Hebrew Charities As
sociation. To-day the Board of Health
found that an epidemic of typhus fever,
known under a dozen names as one of the
most terrible tevers that can visit the human
body, and communicating itself by conta-
gion as well as bv infection, was raging
among them Fiftv-seven of them, already
down with typhus in its marked symptoms.
have been taken TO the hospital on North
Brother Island, and the Board of Health is
doing all in its power to stay the further
spread of the disease. 1t is proable that
preventive measures are already too late,
and that it is now question how far those in
fected for at least ten days have spread the
fever among their friends, whom they have
been visiting in the crowded tenements of
the lower East Side
The Plague Has Foothold.
For several weeks now typhus fever, un-
der the name of famine or hunger fever, has
been spreading in Odessa and in the famine
stricken provinces from which the Hebrews
have been fleeing to Odessa. Stories of
sufferings and the deaths it has caused have
been coming here over the cables. Now it has
de6ed the vigilance of the health
officers who guard this port. 1t has entered
that part of the city most exposed to dam
ger, and for ten DAYS it has been emanating
from at least IA centers discovered and at
tackled by the Board of Health tonight.
DR. Cyrus Edison, Chief Inspector of the
Health Department, was notified at 1890
O'Clock this morning by DR.. Damn that
typhus had made its appearance at ~ East
Twelfth street, and from that hour until
midnight the entire force of the Health De-
partment was needed to make examinations
and transport the patients from the lodging
houses to North Brothers Island
DR. Edison and Dr.. Dillingham; had con-
siderable experience with, typhus fever
when it broke out in this city in 1880, and
they made personal examination of the
sick people at AZ East Twelfth street
There was no doubt about its being
tvphus fever. Fortunately for the
Health Department, all these Russian He
brews have since their arrival here been the
charges of the United Hebrew Charities
Association. None of them has been sent
west, and they have lived in these lodging
houses to which they were assigned.
Prompt Measures Rightly Taken.
There were Is cases of genuine typhus at
40 East Twelfth street Dr. Edison sent
orders to North Brothers Island to prepare
the pavilions there for a large number of
patients and then with the aid of his staff
he inspected different lodging houses where
the Hebrews of this particular ship load
were living
In eight of them were found cases of
typhus. In almost every case the inspector
found the patients with their heads tied up
in wet towels and suffering from violent
headache Their temperatures ranged from
104 10 f06 and some were delirious.
Before o'clock tonight every one of the
Hebrew immigrants who came on the Mas
siila had been examined and either sent to
the hospital or quarantined
President Henry Rice, of the United
Hebrew Charities Association, was in
structed bv DIR. Edson not to discharge anv
of these Russian Hebrews who arrived on
the Massiia, and are now under his charge,
until he shall receive permission from the
Health Department. DR. Edison thinks
that probably very few people have been in
fected with typhus by these Russian
Hebrews.
The Disease Is Hard to Handle.
DIR. Edison did not know tonight what
had become of the Italians who came to this
port with the Hebrews on the MassiIia
They have scattered They lived aboard
ship apart from the Hebrews, and as typhus
has developed so long after the immigrants
were landed, he thinks that perhaps the
Italians escaped the infection.
DIR. Edison said tonight: This is the
worst outbreak of contagious disease that
we have had in New York for many wears.
l would rather handle four times as many
cases of smallpox. Typhus is malignant
and very contagious. The mortality is
high, and probably large percentage
oftyphus sufferers who are now OH the
island will die. They all had strongly de-
veloped symptoms of typhus. I think that
we now have the disease we'll guarded, but,
of course, L cannot tell how many others
have been exposed to it.