An Outbreak of Typhoid Fever Due to Milk

An Outbreak of Typhoid Fever Due to Milk

In the early summer of 1906 an outbreak typhoid fever occurred at Beloit, Wis., which, far as I am informed, has never been described. Fortunately, the outbreak was limited to a comparatively few cases. The period of the outbreak was brief, and rapidly passed away. The first cases were reported on April 20, 1906; another case in the same family, April 28; two cases in another family, April 20; another April 90; another May 2; two cases May 7, and one May 9. Naturally, public attention was called this repetition of the disease, and as a result great ileal of anxiety and fear. Investigations were immediately set in motion to determine, if possible, the cause of the disease.

It was perfectly evident that these cases must have had some cause in common, and it fell the writer to carry out inquiries into the outbreak. Rumors came rapidly of numerous cases throughout the city, many of them separated from each other by a considerable distance; but investigation eliminated all but those cited above. There were at the same time other cases in the city; one of them a man who had been taking care of his brother, sick with the disease, in Milwaukee; the other, a person who had been sick for several weeks. The outbreak was typical of the disease. The victims, one and all, were violently ill with the symptoms characteristic of the disease It was of an abnormally virulent type, as out of eleven cases three died after about four weeks, and all of the others were ill for a long period. The virulence of the disease was most marked.