New-York tribune., 1921-02-16
Sleep Disease
IsFOund ToBe
Communicable
DIR. Harris Predicts Big
Increase i'm Sickness Here
This Winter; Eleven New
Cases. 2 Deaths Reported
One Victim i'm Paterson
immigrants Recently Re-
leased Believed to Have
Carried Malady to .Iersev

Encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping
sickness. is communicable disease,
and the number of cases being re-
ported every day to the Health De-
partment indicates that the present
winter will set a new record for the
malady in this city, according to Dr..
Louis |. Harris, director of the bureau
of preventable diseases.
Eleven additional cases of the un-
expiainable disease were reported for
the twenty-four-hour period ending.
yesterday at 10 a. m, and two deaths,
bringing the total number of cases in
the city this year up to 179 and the
number of deaths to forty-eight. Six
OF the eleven cases reported Yesterday
are IN Manhattan, one in the Bronx
and four in Brooklyn. One of the
deaths was in Queens and the other in
Brooklyn. The Queens death was that
Of Miss Mildred A. George, of 91O4
104th Street. The victim was twenty
one years old
That the disease is not confined to
New York City is, officials of the
Health Department say, we'll estab-
lished by reports of cases from other
and nearby communities printed in the
newspapers.
One Case in Paterson
One of these cases developed yes
terday at Paterson, N. j. William H.
Heacock, of 10 Delaware Avenue, a
silk reed maker, was reported a victim
OF sleeping sickness at his home. He
IS under the care of DR.. Elias J. Marsh,
of that place, and the Board of Health
has decided to watch immigrants ar
irving there from this city. 1t was
said several of those recently released
by the Ellis Island authorities have
gone to Paterson.
While the present mild epidemic of
sleeping sickness cases is the third
outbreak of the disease locally and DR..
Harris said he was not alarmed at the
frequency with which reports of cases
are coming in to the Health Depart
ment, almost as many cases have been
reported in the first fifteen days of the
present month as were reported for the
whole month of February last year. Of
the 179 cases so far made known to
the, health authorities by New York
City physicians since January 143
ber for the entire month of February
last year was 149. January, 1920, ex-
ceeded last January by three cases, but
the ratio of increase for February is
marked and leads DR.. Harris to believe
the present month and March may
more than make up the numerical dis
crepancy between last winter and Janu-
ary, February and March of this year.
Evidence that sleeping sickness is a
communicable disease is quite clear"
said DR.. Harris. "However, it is not,
apparently, a readily communicable dis
ease. Public health authorities make q
distinction between highly infectious
diseases and those that come to be
known as communicable.
"In our comparatively brief expert
ence with the malady we know that
January, February and March are con-
spicuously the months when the disease
is on the increase. The figures thus far
for this year indicate that the largest
increase is yet to come, which probably
will be this month and next month";"
The cause of sleeping sickness or
how it is transmitted has not yet been
ascertained by the medical profession.
Until DR.. Harris's statement yesterday
it was not known whether the disease
was communicable, although there have
been various differing opinions ex-
pressed on the subject.
Joseph B. Wills, of 2s0 Fisk Ave-
nue., Westerleigh, S. L., who has been
in the Staten Island Hospital for sew
eral days, is said by his physician to be
in serious condition from sleeping
sickness. 1t was not definitely known
until yesterday that he was suffering
from this disease. This is the only
case that has developed On Staten
Island.