Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1905 — YELLOW FEVER IN NEW ORLEANS. [ARTICLE]

YELLOW FEVER IN NEW ORLEANS.

First Case Comes from Central America and Many Deaths Result.

The New Orleans board of health, in an official report, says there have been 154 cases of suspected yellow fever in the city, 34 deaths all told, and about 50 cases under treatment at this time. The infection rapidly is assuming the proportions of an epidemic and thoroughly lias alarmed the people of the city and State. The quarantine cordon has been drawn more tightly about New Orleans and it now is impossible for -the local resident to go anywhere outside of a few “excepted” districts within the State. The first case of yellow fever in New Orleans this season came from Central America, not from Cuba, and steps were taken at once to prevent the spread of the disease by resort to methods so effective in crushing out yellow fever iu Cuban cities.

Previous to the Spanish-American war Cuba was regarded, because of the unsanitary conditions prevailing as a constant menace to New Orleans and other Southern cities. When Cuba had been cleaned up and Havana and Santiago were as free from yellow fever as our own cities it was believed that the greatest danger to New Orleans had been removed.

In the yellow fever epidemic of 1888 Florida was the principal sufferer. Iu the epidemic of 1897 New Orleans reported 1,837 cases. Since that time the experiments in Cuba and in other countries have added much to our information as to the nature of the disease, the means by which it is communicated, and the methods of treatment. There is still much difference of opinion as to what extent mosquitoes contribute to the spread of yellow fever, but both the federal and local authorities at New Orleans are proceeding on tlie theory advanced by those who conducted tin* mosquito experiments in Cuba.

Not since the Spanish-American war have we had in this country any panic over the prevalence of yellow fever. In fact. New Orleans ami other Southern cities have assumed that there were to be no more great yellow fever epidemics like that of 1878, when there were 15,000 deaths from yellow fever in the United States, and Memphis was almost depopulated and New Orleans suffered severely.

The interesting question now raised is whether the measures which were so effective in Cuba will be ns effective in New Orleans. Precautionary measures have been taken to prevent the spread of the disease by mosquitoes, and it is announced that the strictest sanitary regulations will he enforce 1.