Medicine: Dysentery in Chicago

Had the U. S. been informed two months ago that Chicago was suffering an outbreak of amebic dysentery, a good many people might have stayed away from the city, with consequent loss to its Fair, hotels and restaurants. Not until last week, when the city’s Congress and Auditorium hotels broke the story by canceling scheduled banquets, did the situation become public. By that time the Fair was ready to close (see p. 53), the epidemic under control.

Also by that time more than 100,000 summer visitors who had been exposed to the disease were scattered throughout the land. Thirty-four of them, in 26 cities, as well as 79 persons still in Chicago, were known to have contracted the disease. Sixteen victims were dead. The U. S. Public Health Service warned all U. S. health officers to be on watch for outbreaks of the disease in their communities.

Amebic dysentery is a disease of uncleanliness. Occurring primarily in the tropics, it is common in the U. S. South, has become a growing menace to the North during the past decade. It is caused by amebae—one-celled parasites—in the intestinal canal. The parasites enter the canal through the mouth, in food or drink. Some of them leave in intestinal discharges. In the U. S., with its well-guarded water and sewage systems, the parasites are spread chiefly by infected food handlers who fail to wash their hands thoroughly. As with typhoid bacilli, the parasites may be carried by humans who do not suffer from the disease.

Chicago ordinarily has one or two cases of amebic dysentery a month. Last August the number jumped to 15. The first two cases were traced to the big, popular Congress Hotel on South Michigan Boulevard. Examination of 364 of its food handlers revealed 15 active cases, 11carriers. One of them was the Assyrian cook thought to have been the source of Chicago’s last outbreak of the disease, in 1927. Infected employes were also discovered at the nearby Auditorium Hotel, and two restaurants.

Amebic dysentery’s symptoms—severe abdominal pain, acute diarrhea, heavy discharge of mucus and blood—do not appear until 18 to 90 days after infection. To Alfred Emanuel Smith, James Aloysius Farley and some 18,000 other persons who had stayed at one of the infested hotels during the summer, Chicago’s Board of Health dispatched guarded inquiries about their health. Those who reported illness were urged to consult physicians. Most cases of amebic dysentery can be cured if treated early. But U. S. physicians, unacquainted with it, often diagnose it as ulcerated colitis, peritonitis, appendicitis. Mary Louise (“Texas”) Guinan, famed nightclub hostess, died in Vancouver, B. C. last fortnight after an operation for ulcerated colitis (TIME, Nov. 13). Last week it was discovered that she had really had amebic dysentery, probably contracted during a visit to Chicago last summer.

By last week most Chicago hotels and restaurants had had their food handlers examined, ousted all those infected. But the Chicago health authorities were badly worried by “an unexpected, even startling” number of cases revealed in the answers to its questionnaire. Believing the danger much greater than appreciated by most physicians. President Herman X. Bundesen of Chicago’s Board of Health arranged for a nationwide radio broadcast to warn and instruct the country. Some authorities believe that one in every ten or 20 persons harbors dysentery parasites. The disease may recur long after an apparent cure. Applicants for food-handling jobs should be examined several times, required to keep themselves thoroughly clean. Those who have had the disease should be examined once a month for four months, every six months thereafter for the rest of their lives.