Scarlet Fever

Text Source: Past and Present of Syracuse and Onondaga County New York, by The Rev. William M. Beauchamp, S.T.D., 1908, pg. 570.

The most important contagious disease scare in the city since that of the smallpox in the '70s was the spread of scarlet fever in 1905.  The city officers and physicians organized to fight the scarlet fever on February 8, 1905, when there were one hundred and twenty cases in the city.  But the work did not become thorough until the following July, when the feat of the effect of the scarlet fever stories upon the approaching Ka-noo-no Karnival, inaugurated a short and sharp campaign, which included a business block canvass.  In two months, by August 18, the disease which had been said to be beyond control was declared to be wiped out.  The experience cost the city about twelve thousand dollars, but there was left a more efficient system of school medical inspection.

Submitted 12 March 2006 by Pamela Priest