Albuquerque Morning Journal

TYPHUS EPIDEMIC WILL NOT SPREAD PHYSICIAN SAYS
Dr. C. E. Waller Returns From Navajo Reservation Where, He Declares, Situation Is In Hand.

(Special Correspondence to The Journal.)

Santa Fe. May 26.-"I'm not in the least apprehensive that the disease will spread to the other parts of the state" declared Dr. C. E. Waller, public health director, today upon his arrival from the typhus fever zone on the Navajo reservation in the northwestern corner of the state.

The situation on the reservation, he said, is serious. Since his wire to the public health bureau reporting sixteen deaths, three more have been added to the casualty list. When he left there were seven or eight active cases in the infected area. He explained the sixteen deaths previously reported had occurred during the last three months.

Believes Disease Confined.

He believed the outbreak could be confined to the reservation. Vigorous steps have been instituted for its control and there are three Indian service physicians and two nurses on the ground. He believed the force adequate for the emergency.

The Indians are "deloused" when they become sick, as the disease is carried only by lice, and placed in the hospital at Shiprock. "Contacts" also are "deloused." Waller believes this will result in stamping out the disease but, he said, the process is a slow one.

"Little Concerned."

"I had one boy peel his shirt off and showed him the lice crawling along the seams," he said, "and doggone if he didn't put it on as soon as I handed it back."

Waller said there was no danger in handling Navajo blankets as the lice carriers could not live more than four or five days away from the human body. He said also the traders who handled the blankets first were disinfecting them and it would be folly if the Navajo blanket industry were ruined on account of the scare as the Indians now had little else for their support.

Police Enforce Order.

Only part of the reservation is infected-an area fifteen miles square west of Shiprock and close to the Arizona line-and under his direction communication between this zone and the rest of the reservation has been restricted. Indian police are enforcing the order.

Situation Not Serious.

Commenting upon the alarm raised by the outbreak in other parts of the state, Waller called attention to the fact that 200 persons died from the diphtheria last winter and the epidemic caused little stir. He remarked the typhus was not any more dangerous than the diphtheria in the infected zone and less likely of being spread to the other parts of the state than the diphtheria. He said the scare was due largely to the fact that the typhus fever was rare in New Mexico.