The Wrangell sentinel., 1954-09-17
THROUGH THE SENTINEL PERISCOPE
Wrangell,, Alaska
 Sept 16, 1854
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Sept. 16, 1854 Lew Williams
 Wrangell, Alaska
 Dear Lew:
 We realize, particularly after reading last weeks issue of The. Sentinel. that there continues to bel a great deal of anxiety and appre- hension about the existence off Polio at the Wrangell Institute.
 Exaggerated rumOrs have been circulated. This 8 unfortunate. Statements, not founded on fact have been made, even by The Sem tinel. This clouds the issue
 Inflammat0ty statements and al larm cause hysteria and prevents people from thinking properly and facing facts squarely.
 We would like to state, at this time, that since the outbreak of Polio at Wrangell Institute all re- sponsible parties h ave labored | nightly and no new children have been received from anywhere in All aska.
 The fact remains that Institute students. a total of four in number, ] have developed Polio and that it is 1 a serious disease; and that the dan ger of new cases developing among adolescents who have not before been exposed to Polio still exists. 1 Therefore, we as Health Officer andI School Physician invite your coop eration for the rest of this emerg- l ency, in continuing to carry out the following recommendations
 1. Institute children will remain | on the Institute campus.
 2. Other children should not come on the Institute campus for any reason.
 8. Institute employees in close contact with Institute children have been asked to be reasonably care i i about personal cleanliness, should avoid close contact with l other children, particularly in close places and should confine other close contacts in town to absolute ly necessary business.
 4. All other people should enter | the Institute campus only on neces- sary business and in these cases a. void contact with the Institute [ children.
 We will try to continue to pro- vide necessary, rational informa- | tion during this emergency. We re- main hopeful that it's effects can be minimized by intelligent appli- cation of these measures. |
 Further, to our knowledge, there [ is at present not a single case of Polio within the city limits of E Wrangell and no attempt will be made to hide it when such a con- dition oyi-ts.
 David Sparling, M. D.
 John o. Bangeman, M. D.
 
 Te Sentinel welcomes construc- tive criticism. When Dr. Sparling came into The Sentinel office last Saturday to complain of ''mis- statemens" made by us concerning the polio outbreak at the Institute, he was invited to write a letter re- lating our mis-statements and was | assured his letter would have the | same position in the paper this | week as te alleged mis-statements last week. The letter is above.
 Unfortunately, Dr. Sparling neg lects to point out where we made any mis-statements. He says: Statements, not founded on fact, have been made EVEN BY THE SENTINEL. This clouds the issue"
 We'll we're a bit "clouded" by this vague accusation.
 No. The Sentinel stated there were three cases of polio at the Institute That was fact - then. Now there have been four.
 Mo- 2. There were none there until after the arrival of a child from Seward where a polio epidem- ic was raging. Another fact. May be the child didn't bring it. Maybe 1t eamo via letter or tourist as Dr. Sparling said last Saturday contag- ious diseases can be spread --l but, obviously, there was no polio in Wrangell Institute until AFTER the boy arrived and came down with the disease.)
 Our only error, that we find and Dr. Sparling fails to point out, is when The Periscope said Despite vigorous protest by Wrangells To- cal health officer, pr. John O. Bangeman. children were trans-l ported from the infected area of Seward to Wrangell Institute" We herewith make the correction. The,