OCR Text |
Show INFANTILE PARALYSIS SCOURGES NEWY0RK Health Authorities Decide De-cide Not to Appeal for Aid in Stamping Out the Disease, Which, Since June 1 , Has Caused 1 96 Deaths Among Children. -UNITED STATES SENDS EXPERTS 45 Cases Discovered in the Empire State Outside Out-side of the Big City; One Case Reported in Pennsylvania; Chicago Health Board Alert. NEW YORK, July 7. Health authorities au-thorities of New York decided late tonight to-night to abandon for the present at least a plan decided upon in the afternoon after-noon to appeal to the American Bed Cross for nurses to aid in stamping out the scourge of infantile paralysis in this city, which since June 1 has caused 196 s deaths among children. Health Commissioner Com-missioner Emerson said he was now of the opinion it would not be necessary to ask for outside aid, as the hospitals of this city have agreed to extend their help more freely. The call for help was sent out after a day devoted by health authorities and the most prominent physicians of the greater city to a discussion of means by which the spread of the diseaso can be checked. Some encouragement was found in the fact that fewer new cases wre Teported today than on Thursday and Wednesday. All tho medical men agreed, however, that only -by unremitting unremit-ting vigilance and the strict enforcement . of every known sanitary precaution , could tho epidemic be kept within bounds. ! Must Report Cases. j Dr. Emerson declared that one of the steps he had decided upon was the prosecution of physicians who have failed to report cases of the disease they I have attended. Court actions would be "begun, he said, wherever the necessary evidence could be obtained. Another serious phase of the situation situa-tion was reported today by tho Asso-; ciation for Improving the Condition of! the Poor, which has found that in the congestod districts of the city f riht-! ened mothers have interned their chil- : dren in their tenement homes, in many! instances with windows closed. Such : action, it was pointed out, is likely to! have serious effects, not only on the ! children, but on adults as well. j Children's reading rooms in the pub-j lie libraries have been ordered ..closed ; as a precautionary measure, and the order barring childron from moving pic- j ture theaters will not be modified un- ; til conditions improve. Playgrounds in 1 various parts of tho city were ordered . closed earlier in the day." j Quarantine Abandoned. j The proposal for a general quarantine: of the city was abandoned by Dr. Emcr- : son an impracticable. Additional assurances wore given to-, day nv the United States public health service that every possible aid would be given tho municipal authorities in carrying on their work. Six officers already have boon assigned to the task of tracing germ carriers, t Soeretarv of the Treasury McAdoo informed Mayor Mitehel todav t hat after a conference with Seerotarv of Agriculture Houston the latter" had agreed to do everything in his power; to facilitate the entry into the eountrv of shipments of monkeys from the Philippine Phil-ippine islands, which are urgently needed need-ed for research work iu connection with infantile paralysis. Fresh Air Work. Fresh atr work for the children of the cUy. It was saui today, was heinp tjnne In close oo-oneration with t lie city and Plate health departments. Before children are sent to the country they are carefully care-fully examined by two physicians and regular visits are made by doctors and nurses to fresh-air homes. Inspectors who are at work In all five horonphs of the Rreater city dcclaro that r never In their experience have they found such sincere efforts made In the' hornet; (Continued on Pago Tnree.) t Taft to Take Stump for Hughes The picture shows William Howard Taft, former president, and Charles Evans Hughes, Republican nominee, at the latter's summe home at Brldgehamp-ton, Brldgehamp-ton, L. I., Just after Mr. Taft announced that he would take the stump for Mr. Hughes. r -t 1 1 f H- trXi A vt-Civ'1- i. "H-..! I 1 ' V 7 i :?i 1 1 - - V Vr V ? A 1 NEW YOBK SCOURGED 81 DBQJSEIISE (Continued from Page One.) of thp poor to follow the instructions of the lipalth depnrtment. AlmnHt cverv home visiter! has been spotlessly cleaned. hut many of them are swarmini; with files because the families fami-lies luive no funds with which to buy screens s a result of these reports, money will be provided to properly screen all windows. Mothers were told to have their children Ret as much fresh air as possible, but to keep them away from other children. Ir. Emerson franltly admitted that his department had been unable to determine the actual cause of the epidemic. All theories which previously had been held apparently have been disproved, he said. Proper isolation of the cases seems to be the only hope of preventing the spread of the disease, he declared. |