Evening star., 1940-12-03
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
BIZ Thomas r. Henry.

By Thomas r. Henry.
One of this generations worst out
breaks of pneumonia plague, the BLACK
DEATH" which almost depopulated
Northern Europe early in the Middle
Ages, appears to have been stamped out
in Ecuador.
This was largely due to the efforts OF
two doctors, travelling representatives
of the Pan-American Sanitary Bureau,
which has headquarters at the Pan
American Union in Washington and acts
as a health sentinel for the Western
Hemisphere.
While the dreaded malady carried by
rats has been known to be lurking In
Eucador for some years, the present out
break was In the most virulent ana
fatal form, superhcially indistinguish-
able from pneumonia, presumably pas
sable from person to person, and with
almost 100 per cent mortality. 1t was
mistaken for pneumonia by local doctors
and nuns in the hospitals. They PAID
with their lives for the mistake.
The story as related by one OF the
American doctors, John R. Murdock, IN
q report to the United States Public
Health Service might almost have been
distracted from a diary Of the 18th
century except for the quick conquest
of the malady. 1t first f1ared up, DR..
Murdock reports, about a year ago III
the province Of Chimborazo. Two
patients. supposedly i'll of pneumonia,
were taken to a Catholic hospital and
nursed by one Of the sisters. She con-
tracted the disease and spread 1t among
the other nuns. Five died. The doctor
who attended them also was stricken
fatally with the malady. Before II was
stamped out nine others In the city had
died.
Shortly afterwards the disease hared
I'm again in a small Indian encamp-
ment between Quito and Gyayaquil. A
medical student, who had heard OF the
former outbreak, was spending Vaca-
ton in a nearby town. He suspected
that the pneumonia of which the req
men we're dying was really plague. HIS
investigation cost him his life.
The outbreak was checked when the
travelling representatives arrived and
the huts of the Indian village, mpos-
sible to fumigate, were burned.
The third and most serious OF these
outbreaks was in the mountainous
province Of Lola. on the peruvian
border. This was also the most pic
turesoue with its setting around the
3oO-vear-old cities Of Catacocha ana
Lola. high in the mountains and con-
nected only by mule trails. There were
seven deaths before the epidemic could
be stopped.
The malady is especially dangerous,
DR.. Murdock explains, because 1t can
be easily misdiagnosed by the average
physician. There is little to dlf1eren-
tiate it from ordinary pneumonia be-
fore serum tests are made, except that
victims die quicker. They come down
with chills, fever and a soft, easy cough
Later they cough up blood.
The plague has been present in
Ecuador, DR.. Murdock reports, since
1908 and has spread from the ports to
the mountain districts along the rivers,
railroads and mule trains. 1t has been
carried by three common types OF rats
and from them spread to domestic guinea
pigs, wild rats, rabbits, squirrels and
probably other rodents.
The outbreak served as warning that
the plague remains menace to the
Western Hemisphere and about the only
insurance against it is constant watch
fulness on the part of the health services
of the different republics. 1t has
foothold in the United States in the
form of 4 sylvatic plague which aflicts
the ground squirrels and other wild
rodents Of the Rocky Mountain area.
These creatures seldom come into nti-
mate contact with man, but there Is
always the possibility Of passing the
dreaded virus to domestic rats. The
Public Health Service is constantly on
the alert.
Sylvatic plague also exists in several
South American countries. Recent Pan
American Sanitary Bureau reports have
brought out the rather alarming pos
sibilty, denied by some physicians but
affirmed by others, that the disease has
been passed on from the wild rodents
to domestic cats and that these pets, in
turn, have transmitted it to man.
Even so, it is stressed, the cat with
its avid appetite for house rats prob
ably is one of mans best defenses
against one of the most dreaded dis
eases Of all times. In Brazil mild
malady, almost never fatal, recently has
been identified as form Of plague. It
is caused by the same organism whose
virulence, apparently, is extremely at
tenuated. This may be only Q tenn.
porary condition.