Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-07-30


erratic character of plague could not
close their eyes to the danger of the
Importation of the infection into even
our ports and communities which are
the most distant from the Pacific
coast; but now the disease has lessen
ed this distance to our New England
states by more than half, there is need
Of survey of the possibility of the
introduction of the infection even into
our Maine ports. Fortunately the
state and municipal health officers in
handling the situation in New Orleans
have the help of the Federal Public
Health Service and its corps of ex-
perts who are trained in work against
the pest Surgeon-General Hue has
personally taken charge of the preven-
tive and eradicative measure in that
city. He it was who, in stamping out
plague in San Francisco, negatived the
contention of many epidemiologists
who have stated that plague is the
most difficult of all diseases to eradi-
cate. Some of them had even main
tanned that where the infection has
once taken root, the disease never dies
out entirely. Nevertheless. it remains
true that the eradication of plague
after it has once gotten into a place
is a hard and costly job.
Circular No. 120 entitled Blu
bonic Plague" is incorporated in
the Bulletin and from which we take
the following extracts;
IF we in Maine still escape the NAL
ady through another long series of
years or stamp it out promptly if 1t
comes to us, it will be because we, as
a people, have had some definite and
correct information about the disease
which shall lead US to make a prompt
united and efficient move whenever the
time for action comes. IF come 1t
should, we shall be obliged to stamp
it out promptly at whatever cost. The
penalty for temporizing with the pro-
blem would quickly run into the mil
lions"
What Is Plague?
1t is in man an infectious malady
which runs an acute or rapid course
almost always. In from one to ten
days at the longest after infection the
first symptoms come on and the dis
ease runs a rapid course to death, or
to the beginning of a tardy conval-
escense.
In its usual form, bubonic plague, in
which the lymph nodes (glands) in the
groins, armpits or elsewhere make an
attempt to arrest and localize the in
fection, the death rate is from fifty
to ninety per cent of the persons who
are attacked. In the septicemic form
there is very rapid and general dis
tribution through the blood and the
body of the infectious germs, and the
mortality rate is still higher; in fact
in this form and in the pulmonie form
which comes from inhalation and in
which it primarily affects the lungs
recoveries are very rare indeed
Aside from these three the bubonic,
the scpticn1c and the pulmonic, plague
has sometimes assumed a much mild
er form in which the death-rate has
been slight. The disease has sometimes
assumed this mild form when it has
first made its appearance, changing to
has progressed.
How Is the Disease Spread?
Plague is primarily disease of the
rat. 1t is communicated from the
plague-stricken rat to other rats by
means of fleas. Infected rats infesting
human habitations endanger man by
bringing him their infectious para
sites. the fieas, The feas abandoning
rat dead of plague, go in search of
living beings who still have warm
blood circulating within them. Biting
man, they inoculate into him the liv-
ing virus which starts the disease. So,
in short. the infection of plague is
brought to man by the rat flea, and the
infectious flea is transported from
place to place by rats.
In the ordinary, and by far the most
frequent form of plague, the bubonic
form. there is but little danger Of it's
direct communication from person to
person if precautionary measures, as
in special hospitals for this disease,
are intelligently carried out. If the
house is harborage for human fieas,
they may transmit the infection from
the sick to well persons as the rat
flea spreads it from rat to rat, or from
rat to man. The disease may also be
given to man by foods or food supplies
which have been contaminated by in
fected rats, or otherwise; and presum-
ably suctorial insects other than fleas
may, in verminous houses, inoculate
plague.
In the form in which the lungs are
affected, pulmonic plague, there is ex-
treme danger of direct infection from
person to person unless the nurses
and other attendants upon the sick are
carefully instructed In safeguarding
themselves.
Plague in Rats and Other Rodents.
In man, plague usually runs a rapid
course. In some animals, and rats
among those, the disease may assume
a chronic form so that infectious ami
mails remain for an extended period of
time as living repositories and dis
tributors of infection. The disease is
extended from rat to rat by their
parasites, the fieas, which act as 60
betweens; or these animals, noted for
their tendency to cannibalism, may re-
ceive the infection by devouring their
paratively weak plague stricken
associates. 1t has many times been
observed that there was an unusual
mortality among the rates just before
epidemics of plague have begun. The
of In 70