The Huntsville Daily Times
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Description: Parrot Fever Is Now Well In Hand
Date: January 26 1930Newspaper published in: Huntsville, AL
Source: Library
Page/Column: Section 2, Page 2, Column 7
PARROT FEVER IS NOW WELL IN HAND
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (AP) – With the importation of parrots prohibited through Presidential decree, government health officials expected to have the current outbreak of psittacosis, or parrot fever, “well in hand” within a short time.
This view was expressed by Surgeon General Hugh E. Cumming after President Hoover had issued a proclamation placing an embargo upon the birds. Previously he had told the chief executive that immediate action was necessary.
Mr. Hoover’s proclamation was issued late yesterday and set forth that for an unlimited period, “no parrot may be introduced into the United States or any of its possessions or dependencies from any foreign port.”
Parrot fever is a mysterious and often fatal malady contracted it is believed, only from infected parrots. It resembles typhoid fever, but is complicated by pulmonary symptoms similar to those present in pneumonia. So far as is known it is not communicable from person to person.
In the course of the recent outbreak, eight deaths have been contributed to this disease and more than fifty illnesses have been reported from as widely distant localities as Minnesota, Maryland, Ohio, Florida, California, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New York.
Previously the disease had been so rare that no serum or other specific had ever been developed for combating the illness. Health officials say that treatment must be fitted to the needs of the individual patient by the attending physician.