| I N T R O D U C T I O
N
THE following report is concerned with various
public-health aspects of an epidemic of typhoid fever
which occurred in a State hospital for the mentally ill
at Manteno, Illinois, in 1939, involving 453 cases and
resulting in 60 deaths. Although the epidemic began
early in August, and continued into October, the material
incorporated in the report was gathered, for the most
part, subsequent to August 21, and the report covers a
period of several months after the subsidence of the epidemic.
The activities described
in this report were directed along two major lines:
(1) determination of the means of transmission of
the disease at the hospital, and (2) institution
of control measures to prevent further transmission
of the disease.
No effort is made in the
report to present a full account of the history and technicalities
of the legal actions and the court procedures to which
the epidemic led. A brief resume is given, however,
of those factual points in the legal actions that would
appear to be of special interest from a public health
standpoint.
Although the public-health findings
as presented to the Supreme Court of Illinois in the source
of the legal actions were held by the Court to have little
probative value, it is hoped that this report may serve
a useful purpose in recording the development and management
of an epidemic of typhoid fever in a hospital for the
mentally ill.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover
Introduction
Chapter 1
Description of Manteno State Hospital
Chapter 2
Onset of Epidemic
Chapter 3
Preliminary Observations
Chapter 4
Water-Supply Study
Chapter 5
Control Methods Adopted
Chapter 6
Amoebiasis-Control Methods
Chapter 7
Epidemiology
Chapter 8
Discussion
Chapter 9
Legal Action Resulting From The Epidemic |
