Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 November 1908 — Finds Many Cases of Diphtheria [ARTICLE]

Finds Many Cases of Diphtheria

Says the Indianapolis News: “J. N. Hurty, secretary of the state board of health, is wrestling with diphtheria epidemics at Earl Park and Mulberry. At the former place, Mr. licMahan the health officer, reports that he has discovered 150 cases .qt “blind” diphtheria. ‘"Dr. Hurty ‘explains that by ‘blind’ dipteeria" he means such cases - as those in which the child is not seriously ill but has the germs in the throat. He says that it all depends on the resisting power of the child whe her these cases are dangerous to the patient, but they are as contagious as the more virulent type. In such cases, Dr. Hurty says, the people often rebel against quarantine and treatment because they can not be made to understand that the child has diphtheria. Since he has ma.de his discovery, Dr. McMahan reports teat the people of Earl Park are aiding him In every way to stamp out the disease. “At Mulberry Dr. Bensjn Ruddell reports that ’there have been three deaths, and that there- are still many severe cases. .More than** fifty instances of the ‘blind’ type have been found and the investigation has not yet* been completed. The ditease was taken to Mulberry by an adult who died of it there three weeks ago, and the case was not diagnosed, it is sais, until after the contagion ham spread.”