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RAT CONTROL
-
The New York City Department of Hea lth has been
operating a pest control truck for the post two years in the slum oreas of
New York, setting out smoll boxes of anti -coagulant poison in rat-infested
tenement oreas.
ease has been recognized in time have
been saved by massive doses of antibiot–
ics. More often than not, most doctors
have never even
.reen
a case of the
plague, which is made all the more dif–
ficult to diagnose because its earlier
symptoms resemble many other diseases.
Thcre is a vaccine available, but the
Plague in its pneumonic fonn could
undoubtedly spread more rapidly thao
people could be immunized. Wcre such
an outbreak to occur today, modern
travel and communication could spread
it faster than any previous pandemic.
Anatomy of an Epidemic
Consider one modern-day case of
epi–
demic disease - Asian
Au.
In February
1957, an epidemic of influenza
appeared in Kwaogsi Province, the his–
torical Chinese beginning site of many
worldwide pandemics, including plague.
This example illustrates how guickly
and efficieotly modern man could un–
wittingly spread a deadly disease
around the entire world, even one being
fought tooth and nail by medicine.
By March 1957, the infection had
been carried to Huoan, where it moved
north of the Yangtze River. Later that
month the virus was isolated for the
first time in Peking. Hapless refugees
unwittingly took the virus to Hong
Kong in April. During the followiog
two months it spread widely, aided by
thc wings of jetliners, to the whole of
December 1971
the Far East. By late April, victims were
being treated in Formosa. Frorn there,
the flu moved into Japan, Indochina
and Indonesia. In the meantime, cases
of this new strain of flu had been
reported in Cairo and in Melbourne. By
the middle of May, travelers had depos–
ited the virus in Guam, and in Madras,
India by June.
It didn't stop there. Leaping the wide
Pacilic to the shores of Ameóca, the
Asían flu, as it was called, became epi–
dernic along the coast of California. In
India, the entire population as far as
Lahore was infested, with repocts of
ill–
ness beginning to come from the Pe.t–
sian Gulf.
Cases began to spring up in New
Eoglaud, tben Holland, and other parts
of Europe simultaneously. By early
August the malady had becorne nearly
worldwide, even contaminating Tas–
rnania, New Zealand, Fiji, New–
foundland, Bolivia, lower Egypt, the
Eastern Mediterranean, the Sudan,
Ethiopia and South Africa.
By late August, the virus had turned
up in the West Indies, UfL!guay, Argen–
tina, the West Coast of Africa and Tur–
key. It was filling beds in Eastern
Europe, Jtaly and Germany.
The f!u epidemic had iofected the
entire world in just a few short months.
The scourge of the Middle Ages, al–
though spreading rapidly, took
YEARS
to reach all of Europe from Asia.
If
this had been pneurnonic plague,
instead of flu, the conseguences would
have been deadly. Fortunately, it
wasn't.
Should We Worry?
As it stands, plague is considered
"under control." At least it has oot
sprung up anywhere for the past few
years, with the exception of poverty–
strickeo countries and war zones, and
the increasingly common occasional
dornestic case. Comparative statistics
seem to indicate, aod most doctors be–
lieve, that there is Jittle cause for worry
at the present time.
That is, as long as
the health a11thorities can keep diseased
rodent pop11latious 11nder control and
isolate the few ca.res that do occ11r.
Under those circumstances, doctors
promise, plague will not threaten us.
Let's hope it stays that way. O