LOS ANGELES EPIDEMIC.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 10 December 1924, Page 10

LOS ANGELES EPIDEMIC.

BLOCKING THE OUTBREAK

DANGER ZONE GUARDED. GRIM EIGHT BY MEDICAL STAFF. . LOS ANGELES, Nov. 3. State and Federal health authorities to-day were moving to the aid of Los Angeles in its grim battle-to block the spread of an outbreak of pneumonic plague that at last reports had claimed a total of 22 victims in the Mex- • ican quarter of the city, and, with 10 cases under treatment at the general. hospital, was expected to claim still other victims to-day. * Doctors IV. H. Kellogg and C. H. Hallidav, State Health Department experts, have arrived' from San Francisco. Dr. Kellogg announced that though there was no doubt about the nature 1 of the malady or. its seriousness, the prospects for bringing it under control were good. Three sqnads of policemen guard the Mexican quarter danger zone day and; night. Food and other necessities are sent through .the police cordon under strict supervision, while within the lines and in the hospital wards-,- nurses, doctors and orderlies go about wearing ' masks to ward off infection.

Herein lies a tale of quiet heroism. Masks worn by those who work among the sick are, after all, but partial protection,- and the. mortality rate of the disease, which is allied to the bubonic plague, approaches 100 -per .cent. These workers among the dooined are not ignorant of, the practically certain fate awaiting them If their protective masks and other precautionary measures fail them,- but, ,as Dr. -Kellogg explained it: ‘ “That is all part of the work in dealing with a situation like this. Those who do the work must take the risks.” Ground squirrels probably carried the disease to Los Angeles and communicated it to rats, who in turn transmitted it to the first human victim through the intermediary agency of a flea, Dr. Kellogg said in discussing tile history of the plague in the United States.

Serum laboratories in New York today wex-e called on by. the United: States Public Health Service' to report* at once if- they were able to supply antitoxins with which to fight the pneumonic, plague in Los Angeles. If the New York manufacturers have none on hand, the Pasteur Institute, in Paris, Franco, the only other place in the world where the sbrum is. available, • will be askecL to, "ship scnhe to this country. ; _ Fight to .overcome 1 the. pneumonic .l?“lS.uo in Los Angeles will be .conducted under the -direction of physicians and agents of the United Stated Public Health Service, it is announced; today from the offices .of the State Board of Health.

T l )r |-. J; Perry and N.' W. Wayson and William M. Dickie of the Federal •department are en route from Washing, tori to the infected district.