The Spread of Parrot Fever

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7201, 26 April 1930, Page 10

The Spread of Parrot Fever

Precautions Against The Disease

| HE* number of cases of ! “parrot fever,” which have recently been reported from all parts of the world has alarmed I a great many people.

And so pretty Polly, the pet of the household, long ago the thunderbird revered by certain tribes of early American Indians,. is being called a bird of ill omen, a dealer of death. Psittacosis, or parrot fever, is well known to the medical profession. The symptoms of the .disease resemble those of typhoid-pneumonia, and are often diagnosed as typhoid, influenza, pneumonia or as malarial fever. Although it is highly dangerous, particularly to old people, the disease is not highly contagious except from sick birds and its spread can easily be controlled by the elimination of sick parrots. Not only is the disease a menace to man, but it has proved quite a serious problem for pet fanciers. In October several cases were reported from Buenos Aires, where it was said that four persons, members of a theatrical troupe, had died of the disease after having caressed a pet parrot owned by one of the troupe.

Cases have also been reported since that time from Prague, in Czechoslovakia, and from Hamburg and Dresden. And recently in New Zealand a shipment of parrots has come under suspicion.

Psittacosis was first recognised in 'Germany and apparently the parrot is the only carrier of the disease. Other animals, mainly pigeons, rabbits, guinea pigs and dogs, have been inoculated and have developed the disease in laboratories, but only following inoculation. The disease sometimes affects several members of a family, all of whom have handled a parrot carrying the disease, and the complaint is especially dangerous to persons having a pre-existing heart or kidney trouble, obesity or diabetic condition. . A diagnosis is not easy without a history of association with sick parrots except in case of an epidemic, when the disease is in the forefront of public attention. The incubation period of the disease is from 8 to 12 days in man and runs its course in about three weeks. The mortality rate has been variously estimated from about 35 per cent, to

50 per cent, or higher for elderly

people. The treatment is in general that of other typhoid conditions, with especial precautions to guard against pulmonary complications. One of the most-fatal epidemics of parrot fever occurred in Paris in 1892 following a shipment of parrcts from South America to France. Three hundred of a shipment of 500 birds had died in transit. From the remaining number 49 cases among human beings developed, 16 of them being fatal. There were outbreaks of parro fever in New Hampshire in 1904 and in England in 1914. Coincident with the outbreak in Paris in 1892 there was a sporadic outbreak in England. Dr. T. P. Beddoes tells of two interesting cases which he was able to recognise because the niece of one of the patients insisted that “Auntie had the same disease the parrot had had. An aunt and niece had been taken ill and showed symptoms off pneumonia it developed upon investigation that the brother of the young patient, who was an officer on a tramp steamship, lad brought home a parrot which had been with other parrots in care of sailors One sailor on the voyage had gone to the hospital in Bordeaux and another at Liverpool. When the parrot arrived it seemed out of condition, but never at any time did it seem likely to die. When the two patients became ill, the bird was killed and the body disposed of before the physicians knew that there had been a parrot in the house. The special feature of the case was the marked prostration of the older woman and the severity of the lung condition which brought about her death. The younger woman recovered. During the present epidemic the public has repeatedly been warned against the purchase of newly imported parrots. There is no danger from those which have become domesticated.

The remedy against such sporadic outbreaks in the future lies, of course, in measures for detaining the birds at quarantine to determine whether or not they are infected with, the germ. But the control of the disease among human beings ought not to be difficult, nor the epidemic of long durv-it*