by Laurel | December 21st, 2011
21 December 1911
Vaccination Against Smallpox
Four Year Old Girl Has It.
Lives in High Street Block and Many People Will Be Kept in Quarantine
Dr. Lewandoski reported to the board of health yesterday afternoon that there was a case which she believed to be smallpox in the family of Karimer Kowalkwicz at 133 High Street. Annie, the four year old daughter, being ill with the disease. City physician Herbert, Dr. J. P. Shine and Dr. J. J. Carroll were at once called and found the case to be a light case of varioloid, the child having been vaccinated in May. Dr. Wetherell and the members of the board of health visited the block last evening, and the same procedure was followed as in the Lyman Street block, the building being placed under quarantine and guarded by police officers. There are six families in the building, besides a number of roomers and boarders, and it is probably that about 30 people will take an enforced vacation from labor.
The child was removed to the isolation hospital last evening, the house fumigated and the residents of the block vaccinates. There are four French families living in the block, besides two Polish families. Considerable credit for discovering the case is given Miss Lewandoski, a Polish girl, who has just graduated from a medical school and has received her diploma as doctor of medicine. She came to the city and commenced practice about five weeks ago.
The board of health will continue every precaution against the spread of the disease, and hope to keep in confined to its present district. At the same time preparations are being made at the hospital for more cases should the disease spread. The epidemics of smallpox are a costly thing for the city has to furnish support for the persons under quarantine, and where disease breaks out in a block of many tenements, the expense is heavy. The first case is doing nicely, and the early recovery of the patient is expected. Yesterday’s case is even lighter that the first, the little girls being able to be around, to some extent yesterday. Its prompt discovery will mean less chance for the spread of the disease.
The board of health is making a special endeavor to see that every school child in the upper districts, where the smallpox cases have appeared, are vaccinated, and also to ascertain, whether in the case of the children who have been vaccinated previously, the vaccination has worked. The board recognized that they have a difficult problem on their hands to hold the disease in check, and are being assisted by other physicians in trying to prevent its spread. In talking the matter over last evening, former epidemics were recalled. Thirty-nine cases were treated in the epidemic of 1902 and several thousand dollars expended.
Adapted from The Springfield Republican, poster image in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.
