The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-09-30

/ ? seven new cases of typhoid fever y
| = were reported to the city board of \
/ y health yesterday, as follows:
! = Clarence Patterson, aged 16 lie =
! y South Fourth West street. =
= Leland Holt. aged II, 430 East Fifth =
Sarah a. BAH, aged 10. IA Rio =
| y GTande avenue \
= Margaret Hamlin, aged "a 1874 :
/ y princeton avenue.
Ethel Melville, aged s, 1913 Emer-
I y son avenue. =
Mrs. J; NJ. Christensen, aged SO, 724 ,
/ y Roosevelt avenue. y
y W. 3. Fisher aged 90 rs L street. y
| <**+@*%%~%%%<+%%*%%+%%%%~N
Flies are blamed for the typhoid fever
epidemic in Salt Lake, according to a re-
port by DR.. T. 3. Beatty, secretary of the
state board of health. filed with Walter
/ j. Frazier, city dairy and food commits
! sIoner, yesterday DIT. Beatty takes the
! position that the epidemic did not orig
| mate with the Moss Bros dairy at Woods
! cross, but that it was probably spread
! TrOm there, A boy in the station agents
! house was taken down with typhoid fever
! several weeks before Mrs. Steve Moss
! and DIT. Beatty holds that this probably
| started the epidemic, the typhoid being
| carried to the Moss residence through the
/ medium of flies
! The report of DR.. Beatty in full is as
| follows:
| Walter ]. Frazier City Food Inspector,
/ Salt Lake City.
! Dear STRENGTHENING my verbal report
! this is TO advise you that I visited Mrs
! Stephen Moss Of Woods Cross at your
/ request Tor the purpose of diagnosing the
J disease with which she is affected and
/ found the same to be typhoid fever.
/ In this connection will state that in
/ view Of the numerous cases of typhoid
/ FEVER reported as occurring among con-
| sumers of milk from the Moss dairy and
! others in the Woods Cross district, I
| investigated the conditions prevailing
Of ID. r~r-
! possible the source of the infection.
/ AS typhoid fever can originate only i'm
/ the germs given off i'm the discharges of
! a previous case Of the disease, the in
] vestigation was especially directed to the
] discovery of any SuCn case existing or
/ having existed in the locality No trace
/ OF the disease could be found, with the
/ exception of three recent cases, including
I that of Mrs. Moss. above referred to-
/ This case had been diagnosed and treated
I as sO-Called catarrhal fever The nurse
/ however, OF her own voiitiOn, had care
/ fully diSlnfeCted all discharges and there
] by prevented danger of disseminating the
l disease; also the disease had appeared CO.
| incidently with the outbreak I'm Salt Lake
/ City. thus establishing the fact that it
! could not possibly have been responsible
/ for the spread Of the infection.
From Same Source.
| An incubation period of not less than
/ two weeks must elapSe between the intro
/ duction of the germ of the disease and
/ the beginning of the fever The same
| facts were disclosed in the case on the
/ premises of Mr.. Parkin, and the cOnClU-
sion reached was that these two cases
had resulted from the same source that
( had infected the milk of the ddiTies under
/ suspicion. The third case discovered, the
/ son of the railway section master. was
/ located at the section house at Woods
/ Cross, and could possibly have been the
! origin of the outbreak as the disease had
/ existed for several weeks prior to its ap-
/ pearance.
/ There seems to be no reason to doubt
/ that flies We're the agency conveying the
( infection. Assuming this to be the fact
/ they had become contaminated with the
/ contents of The clubhouse on the section
! premises referred 70, or some other out
/ house in the locality, which had been the
! receptacle for typhoid eXcreta. thence
/ carrying the material to the milk handled
| by the various adjacent diaries. Immedi-
/ ate steps were taken to thoroughly dis
/ infect all OuthOuses and to abate other
/ unsanitary conditions throughout the en-
| tire district, and this has been accom-
The present situation emphasizes the
/ importance Of the repeated warnings
/ which have been issued on the subject of
/ disinfecting the discharges Of typhoid
| cases and the destruction and exclusion Of
! flies.
Cost of Carelessness.
| People must understand there can be
| no case of the disease except as result
l OF ll4E neglect 40 ulSlltlttt tllt NlHA-lca et1H
| from q former case. and that it is spread
| as q result of such neglect the undisin-
/ fected material being carried on the legs
| of flies to milk and other foods or flnd-
/ ing its way into the water supply
| through drainage or seepaSe.
/ There were reported in Salt Lake City
/ between the lst and 9th of this month
/ one hundred and thirty-eight 03>) cases,
/ OF which about one-third were consumers
/ of milk from the Woods Cross diaries,
/ one-third divided among the other diaries
supplying milk to the city and one-thiTd
! privately owned COWS and condensed milk.
/ 1T may fairly be assumed that in a
/ majority of the latter cases milk was not
/ responsible for the disease. For tins rea-
son tine water supply becomes open TO
| suspicion, and all water used for culinary
| purposes should be boiled.
! Many cases exist I'm localities where
] sewer extensions and connections have
/ not been effected. and Outhouses, the coz
| tents Of which are exposed to flies, should
/ be suspected. ] would recommend that
/ an immediate order be issued to owners
| of al premises on which OUthOUseS are
/ situated TO cause the contents of the same
/ to be covered with lime and to hereafter
maintain them in such manenr as to eN-
/ ClUde flies.
/ THE law requiring sewer connection
| should be Tigidly enforced.
! Until the Inauguration of a suitable
/ filtration system, which is one Of the most
/ imperative sanitary needs Of the city
there will continue to he danger from
/ contamination of the water supply be
| cause of the exposed watershed. 1t is al
most impossible to prevent this effectu-
ally, but every effort should be made to
minimize it.
The city has the right, and it is its
duty. to patrol the entire course Of the
streams supplying fl with water and to
/ cause the removal and abatement of all
communicating nUisanCes. Yours respect
/ fully. T. b. BEATTY,
Secretary
/ CFI FcT SPECIAL DAYS