Evening star., 1911-08-08
HARD TO LOCATE SOURCE
Trouble Finally Traced to Pond
Water Pumped Into City Mains.
GENERAL ovERHAULING BEGUN
Sanitation League Is Formed and
Rigid Measures Are Taken to
Safeguard Health.

| What typhoid fever can do to a town
and what a town can do TO typhoid both
have been illustrated in a trip just COM
| pleted by DIR. l.. l.. Lumsden of the
public health and marine hospital service.
DR.. Lumsden recently investigated the
typhoid conditions in the Yakima valley
! Washington. The typhoid situation there
has been one of the worst in the United
States. and last spring sudden out
| break alarmed the authorities of the town
| Of North Yakima.
The local and state health authorities
combined in requesting the presence of
| one Of the marine hospital surgeons, and
Gen. Wyman. chief of the service. de-
| tailed DIR. Lumsden. He now has re-
| turned after locating the source of the
trouble and says he has left behind a
community engaged in such a campaign
of cleaning up and sanitation he has
never seen before. The results of the
campaign cannot be seen before the cold
weather and will be better appreciated
next year, but the chances arc that the
measures now being taken will be eff
fective.
DR.. Lumsden says the Yakima valley is
one of the most wonderful sections of the
United States. 1t is the great apple and
truck region of the northwest and the
soil. climate and general conditions all
combine to favor extensive farming
When the public health service was max
ing tentative inquiries for ground which
it thought 1t might need to buy, 1t found
that the farm land ran from 5000 to
81 600 an acre. two-acre farm there
is a small fortune. The people are making
money fast and easily and the town OF
North Yakima has grown in few years
from a hamlet to a city of $4,000
Death Rate High.
But there has intervened the typhoid
The typhoid death rate for Yakima coun-
ty, which includes practically all the
| valley, is about 100 per 100000 of popula-
| ton. The typhoid average for the United
States is about Al per 100000, and that is
higher than it ought to- be. Yakima is
one of the few places where the typhoid
death rate is as high as that from
tuberculosis.
The trouble comes from two things
the pollution of the irrigation water and
the consequent conveyance of the disease
by vegetables, such as lettuce, radishes
and celery, and the immense number of
flies. The valley is one of the worst
places for the typhoid house fly in the
country. The business men have known
for some time that the lack of santa
ton in and around the town was pre-
pairing them for worse outbreak OF
typhoid than usual. They we're prepar-
ing for a sanitation campaign this sum
mer when the explosive outbreak of
typhoid came in the early spring.
DR.. Lumsden was rushed to the spot.
He says he found curious condition.
There was a bad outbreak of typhoid
covering about 10 per cent of the town
and confined 70 one section. The water
supply was not above reproach, but that
source of infection seemed to be elimi-
mated by the fact that people in only
one section had the disease. and it was
too soon for the regular seasonal out
break. There were few flies at that time.
and the infected vegetables evidently
were not responsible. The natural sus-
piciOn pointed TO the milk supply, but
out of the fifty families where the dis
ease was there were twenty different
dairies running milk routes and these
served other sections well.
Traced to Pond.
Finally the trouble was traced to a big
lumber company. This company had
yard in one corner Of the town. AS 1t
always had about 100000 worth OF
lumber in the yard, 1t naturally was
afraid of fire, and, aside from the city
| water system. it could pump water from
big pond into the city mains and in
was heavily infected with typhoid, and,
owing to some breaks in the service
pipes, water had been pumped into the
city mains. These mains were all in the
region of the typhoid outbreak AS soon
as the condition was realized the water
supply arrangements were changed.
The town of North Yakima, DR. Lums
den says, can hardly be separated by
any hard and fast line from the farming
region of the valley. The farm will con-
sist of a coupe of acres with a house.
and then another couple OF acres. Nearly
everybody keeps horse. because con-
ditions do not favor the use Of machinery
for working big farms There are more
and consequently more flies. In many
ways conditions were insaAitary
When the business men found the sit
uation was going to react on the business
interests of the community they got busy.
They appointed a city and county health
officer. the best man they could find, and
recomme .lded by the physicians. They
paid him enough to make him independ-
ent of private practice and stipulated
that he should devote his whole time to
the work.
League Is Organized.
Then they formed a sanitation league
and admitted to membership only those
people whose premises were approved by
the health authorities. When a house
in the sewer district iS not connected
with the sewer system the health au-
thorities wait until it is vacated and
then condemn it. That condemnation
notice is kept tackled to the front and it
is not allowed to be rented until the
connection has been made. The city
health Office keeps a museum of sani-
tary appliances. and this is visited by
many people every day.
The Sanitation League has divided the
town into districts. with two members of
the league in each district, and the few
people who not voluntarily clean-
ing up are to be prosecuted as object les
sons. The city has even put fly traps on
the street-big things. four>feet high and
three feet in diameter; these catch as
much as half a bushel of flies a week,
but the authorities say they realize that
| the fly traps are only a mildly palliative
mea sure and that for every 1000 flies
caught there are billion at liberty.
What they are going after are the sta
bles.
The health authorities realize that con-
| tact is one of the great sources OF ty-
phoid and as soon as there is case that
| the physician has reason even to sus-
pect is typhoid. he reports ii ''sus-
picious and a city nurse is sent to
| the house. If there is not trained
nurse on duty and the family is not.
taking the right sanitary precautions,
| she shows them how and returns as often
as is necessary till the sanitation is prop
erly MANAGED