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Show I1 U. S. Health Department Seeks Malady Answer City Chlorinates Water Supply; Caution Is Urged Even though the Utah State Board of Health has concluded through a series of tests and studies that a portion of Roosevelt's Roose-velt's water supply is contaminated, contamin-ated, the U. S. Public Health Service Ser-vice has sent a corps of experts into the field to make further studies. ' The outbreak of from 400 to 500 cases of a gastro-intestinal disease last week-end in the Roosevelt area, which sent some to the hospital and most of the others to bed, -has been the cause of a wide-spread search for the "bug" that started' the damage. Reported Wednesday Shigella organisms, the common cause of bacillary dysentery were isolated from-stools of sick persons per-sons and also from samples of water taken from the Roosevelt municipal water supply, said Rus-(Continued Rus-(Continued On Back Page) U. S. HEALTH DEPT. . . . (Continued from page one) sell S. Fraser, director of laboratories labora-tories for the the health department. depart-ment. Bacteriological tests started a week ago were complicated in the laboratory Wednesday. Mr. Fraser said the type of Shigella organisms obtained from the Uintah Basin were not as virulent vir-ulent as the type often encountered encount-ered in other parts of the world. They can live in a water supply for as long as seven days, and the incubation period after ingestion inges-tion is from four to five days. From Georgia Office A group of doctors and technicians tech-nicians from the Communicable Diease Center of the U. S Public Health Deph., of Atlanta, Ga arrived in Roosevelt Wednesday to begin a very intensive survey and study of various conditions that might, in a measure, contribute con-tribute to an epidemic. Water, milk, foods and other items consumed con-sumed by the human body that carry the organisms which could cause an epidemic such as the one locally last week will receive a careful study. Heading the U. S. Public Health delegation is Dr. ' Fred J. Payne, who . reported' to the Roosevelt Standard this, morning that he and his staff will make eveTy possible study and survey to find the complete answer to the "bug" that hit the Roosevelt area. He felt certain that the report from the state health , department . was substantially correct, in assuming that the portion Of the water that comes from a canal and is co-mingled co-mingled with well water by Roosevelt City was infected by the Shigella organisms. However, he said there are many other places the "bug" could possibly be found. "It is our job to find that source if we can," he said. Dr. Payne reported they are going to make a study of the entire Uintah Basin water supply for communities as well as make surveys of homes where they are seeking answers to numerous questions that would be helpful in getting a , complete story. People are urged to be cooperative coopera-tive with the public health representatives. repre-sentatives. A crew of six is aiding aid-ing Dr. Payne in making the survey. Installs Chlonnator Mayor Paul Murphy reported the city had installed a chlorin-ator chlorin-ator at the head of the system and water that is being dumped into the system from the canal is being properly treated. This was a recommendation from the state board of health. In a letter from the State Health Department to the City, Mayor Murphy was asked to cooperate co-operate with them and the U. S. department and do everything in their power to clean up the epidemic epi-demic that had caused so much difficulty here. The letter assured the city if proper treatment of the water was done, people should have little fear of a re-occurance re-occurance of the malady. As a precaution the state and city urges people to boil their water. The city well at the park was tested and found to be free from contamination of any kind. This was also true of the . well that supplies the Frontier Grill Cafe. Other underground wells in the city will be tested. The letter from the state further stated that they would continue to watch for possible illness due to salmonella organisms, which might have contaminated the water wa-ter at the same time. The salmonella sal-monella incubation period is about two weeks, which means there might be further illness due to this cause. Shigella organisms usually cause an illness lasting from two to seven days. |