U.S. Officials Seek Smallpox Contacts

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29906, 21 August 1962, Page 13

U.S. Officials Seek Smallpox Contacts

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) NEW YORK, August 20. United States health officials today faced the tremendous task of tracking down people who came in contact with James Orr, a Canadian boy suffering from smallpox. The boy passed through Idlewild airport and Grand Central railway station, New York, on the way to his home in Toronto, Canada, from Brazil on August 11.

The New York authorities said there was no immediate cause for alarm, but stressed that smallpox was highly contagious and urged anyone who thought they might have come in contact with the boy to obtain a vaccination immediately.

took the Orr family from the airport to the railway terminal. The boy’s father remembers only that the driver was a negro and his car was light-coloured. There are about 12.400 taxis in New York, with some 40,000 drivers.

quarantine in a Toronto home and was to remain in isolation for at least 16 days, health officials said. He was on his way to Alberta from five years of missionary work in the Brazilian jungles when his son became ill. Three other members of the family who were with the boy—Mrs Orr, her son, Joseph (13) and daughter, Dorothy (9)—were under quarantine at their home in Three Hills, Alberta.

In Toronto, hospital authorities described the boy's condition as “generally good.” The boy’s father, the Rev. James Robert Orr, was under

They announced later that the city’s eight special inoculation stations yesterday had vaccinated 260 persons who responded to radio and television publicity about the case. Anther 250 persons, mostly airlines employees were vaccinated at Idlewild airport. It is the first known case of smallpox in the United States since 1947. The two New York morning tabloid newspapers, the “Daily News” and the “Mirror” carried banner headlines on their front pages about the hunt for anyone who may have been in contact with the boy. Health authorities and police mobilised for the nation-wide search for these people. Many of the 73 passengers and crew of nine aboard the Argentine Airlines plane on which the boy, who is 15, travelled to New York, have since scattered to distant places. One family of three on the flight was known to have since returned to La Plata, Argentina. Another passenger left a New York hotel to drive to Niagara Falls, New York, with a friend. State police were asked to search for the car. Police were also unable to locate the taxi driver who