The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-08-22
ST. LOUIS SLEEPING SICKNESS
EPIDEMIC CLAIMS Is LIVES
Battling Disease Spreads as
Scientists Start War
on Source.
149 PERSONS STRICKEN
Worst Epidemic of Kind in
U. S. History, Says
Health Chief.
ByInitcd Press

By nitod Press
ST. LOUIS. Aug. 22.-The
outbreak of sleeping sickness
in st. Louis was described
here today as the worst cpl
demic Of the disease this
country had ever known by
DR.. j. P. Leake, of the United
States public health service.
Three new deaths and twenty
three new cases reported Monday
brought the total dead to fifteen
and the cases now in confinement to
l49, since the malady first was OBJ
served here in July.
While there is little fear the
epidemic will assume the propor-
tons OF plague, the situation must
be regarded as serious. as science
knows little about the disease" DR..
Leake said.
1t is not related to African
sleeping sickness, but it is by far
the worst epidemic of encephalitis
this country has ever known
Worst in U. s. History
DR.. Leake said the worst former
outbreak was at Spokane. Wash.
during 1919, 1920 and 1921, when
nineteen persons died over the three
year period. But the total number
Of patients did not compare to those
already i'll here, he said.
Working with DR.. Leake is DR.. w.
G. Patton, superintendent of the
county hospital. He discovered and
diagnosed the illness here. DR..
Charles Armstrong. United States
public health service pathologist. ar
rived today to aid in the laboratory
search for the cause of the disease.
Many of the victims. DR.. Patton
said, either were residents of low
land mosquito-infected sections or
worked in sections badly infested
with the insects.
Physicians Are Puzzled
The malady. puzzling to ply
siclans, affects the brain in much
the same manner as meningitis or
infantile paralysis. DR.. Patton said.
Although 1t resembles infantile pa
ralysis, there is no trace of pa
ralysis, the hospital head said.
StrangeneSs of The malady ia
magnified because, with one excen-
ton, 1t has affected only one mem
Der of a family and because of the
inability to discover the source.
The epidemic has remained local.
lied which DR.. Patton said was un-
usual for an epidemic of this nature.
Usually, DR.. Patton said, when an
epidemic becomes as widespread as
the present sleeping sickness here.
II spreads to other localities. There
mas been no report of the disease
spreading outside of this immediate
area, however, according to DR.. Pat
ton.
Little Known OF Disease
DR.. Paul Zentay, assistant health
Va Obs LOUIS, SdlO IQdL
little is known of the disease and
that scientists have been unable to
isolate the virus, which he defined
as the smallest ultra microscopic
organism that can pass through the
smallest filters we have"
DR.. Patton appealed to county
and municipal authorities TO pour
oil on all open sewers and cess
pools to prevent breeding of
mosquitoes and he is conducting ex-
perimentS TO determine whether
mosquitoes actually are the carrier
agent that is spreading the disease.
Another authority who is entering
into the war TO end the spread OF
the disease is Dr. Ralph S. Mucken-
fess. bacteriologist of Washington
university in st. Louis. He will con-
duct experiments through inocula-
ton Of type of south American
monkey, the rhebus, with virus OF
the disease.