The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1909-10-15

pTeClplldtely III lne ndlleTs anu tue
writer, as an outsider, must admit to
the same impression with some res.
ervations. One lady who lives sew.
eral miles from town called up the Cit.
izen office about twenty.four hours af.
ter the schools were closed, and anx'
iously asked Is II true that you
have forty cases of this new disease
in town; and is Tilden quarantined
so that IL come to town, | may have
to stay there for three weeks?" These
questions were put in all seriousness
and were the outcome of the wild
stories which sprung from nobody
knows where. Another instance of the
same kind. A lady I'm Tildeu was ex.
pecting some eastern relatives to visit
at her home. She received a telephone
call from Norfolk on the day of their
anticipated arrival asking If 1t would
not, in the face of reports gathered
from a travelling salesman, be better
for the travellers to return to New
York and defer the long looked for
visit until all danger Of the pestilence
was passed.
Such ridiculous fears pouring into
the ears of the men and women who
were cognizant of the actual facts con.
corning the one case in Tilden natu-
rally gave rise to some resentment,
and the handiest recipients for such
| feeling were naturally the public of
Hcials whose authoritative action gave
publicity to the one isolated case of
the disease in the town.
AS soon as Dr. Campbell was ap.
prised of the presence of the case in
Tilden he addressed letters of inquiry
| to doctors in towns of the state where
the complaint has been reported at
it's worst. With the dostor's permits.
sion and for the information of the
public in this vicinity, the following
replies are published at length:
Hear From Fremont.
Fremont, Neb. Oct. 3. Dear Doc
tor: Your letter of yesterday at hand,
and in reply will say that | do not
believe poliomyelitis contagious, but
possibly very infectious. We held a
meeting of the doctors of Fremont
and decided not to close schools and
churches. but in all cases to quarantine
| the families who became afflicted.
This was also made incumbent upon
us by the State Board of Health. We
have had fifteen or twenty cases, with
one death, and in most cases paralysis
of limbs. No new cases for a week
or more. Respectfully,
f.. w. Martin, Nj. d.
Valley, Neb.. Oct. a. Dear Doctor:
| In reply to your letter of the End inst,
will say that | am glad to tell you any
thing | may happen to know relative
to this so-called new disease. Only
four cases have come under my OBJ
5ervation; one fatality. The child who
died | only saw once, and was only
able, at that time to predict possible
paralysis. | have since learned that
the child died of the bulbar type of
the trouble. AS to its being conta.
gious, | think so. The best men arc
forced to concede that it is mildly So
think it is a good plan to dismiss
school for at least a week or ten days
where the trouble exists, before it has
time to spread. Such action will hurt
no one and by so doing you may pos
sibly prevent children from becoming
permanent cripples. Three cases one
a crossed paralysis, have occurred in
the same district of this town, on the
same road and within a quarter of
a mile, but only one in each family
has been affected, | asked the school
board to cooperate with me and they
have been doing so. We have isolated
our patients, and ! have taken all
the precautions that | would observe
in diphtheria. | have been careful OF
the bedding and the eXcreta of all
kinds, and while have not maintained
a legal quarantine, yet it amounts
to the same thing. We have dis
missed school for three weeks where
~. IA ,l,r f.l1f no
new ones have shown up
Fraternally yours,
j. C. Agee, NJ. d.
Stromsberg. Neb., Oct. 4. Dear Doc
tor: Yours of the 2nd is just received
and | hasten to reply. Yes, we have
had severe epidemic of so-called
meningitis here. | had the spinal
fluid examined in a well known lab
oratory in Omaha and the report
was meningitis; consequently we
called ii so. We now have reason
to doubt that diagnosis, and | am OF
the opinion that it is really poliomye
ltis. | feel sure that no honest doc
tor could have closely observed ouI
epidemic without being convinced
that it is decidedly contagious, and
some of our new books will bear lis
out in that conclusion. 1t is, | an
sure, the most serious epidemic that
has occurred in the state, because
of its well known gripping results
which are often worse than death
| believe it criminal not to quarantine
these cases, since an effective quaran
tine will stop the epidemic; but al
cases must be diagnosed early or al
least prevented from carrying the con
tagion to neighbors. The state boarG
at first simply asked us to isolate the
cases, as no legal provision had beer
made for quarantining them. But i'm
mediately after the Fourth of July Gel
ebration the number of cases in
creased rapidly, and on the DIST We
were authorized and commanded by
the state board to quarantine. We
then quarantined about seventy-five
homes without delay, and on August
18th our last case appeared in the city
Hardly a case in the country tributary
to our city has occurred since. Os
ceola has had the same experience
but the epidemic reached there later
so that they could profit by our eX
perience, and quarantined before they
had many cases and Il STONED a