Atlanta Daily World

New York Emergency Called Boy, 15, Hospitalized, Fear Smallpox Spread
By STAN HALL

NEW YORK (UPI)-A missionary's son suffering from highly contagious smallpox passed through two of New York's busiest transportation centers a week ago, health officials learned Sunday. They immediately launched an international search for those who might have been exposed to the dread disease.

Eight emergency vaccination centers were set up in key locations in New York City and officials urged anyone who thought they might have been possibly exposed to seek vaccinations.

The U. S. Public Health Service PHS, the United Nations World Health Organization WHO and the New York police department attempted to locate travelers who might have come into contact with the boy at the transportation centers - Idlewild Airport and Grand Central Station.

The widespread preventive action came after the Canadian ministry of health notified Washington that the boy, James William Orr, 15, was in a Toronto hospital with the disease that has been known to have an average 35 per cent mortality rate.

CONDITION REPORTED GOOD

The boy, whose mother, Mary Orr, is a missionary-author, was reported in good condition and making satisfactory progress. His mother, father, and two sisters who came through New York with him en route from Brazil to Canada were placed under house quarantine in Canada.

The Orrs arrived in New York on Argentine Airlines flight 322 week ago Saturday, Aug. 11. They went to Grand Central Station, where they waited six hours for train to take them to Canada.

In Washington, the PHS said that 71 of the 75 passengers aboard the Argentine plane had been sent telegrams warning them of the possible danger. In New York, however, police, pressed into service health officials, located only 16 or 29 New York-bound passengers.