Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Small Pox

Marietta Intelligencer, January 20, 1855

Exaggerated reports respecting the prevalence of this disease in Marietta, have already gone abroad, and we therefore deem it proper to state the facts, which are briefly these:

There is a single family, and but a single one, in town, in which the disease exists, or in which a case has occurred.  In that family all who have had it have recovered, or are doing well.  It has been reported that two children belonging to this family, who were on Monday last at school in the new school house on the plain, where probably two hundred children attend daily, were on Tuesday taken down with the disease.  We learn, however, that the children were not sick on Tuesday, nor on Wednesday, nor on Thursday, and so far as we know, they are well yet.  Dr. Cotton, the physician of the Board of Health, assures us that these children could not have communicated the disease when they were last at school.

It is undoubtedly true that several persons have been exposed to contagion by visiting in the sick family, before the nature of the disease was known, and of course every precaution should be taken to prevent it from spreading; but there is no occasion for the alarm that many feel, and by proper care there is reason to expect that no other families will be attacked.  Those who have been exposed should not go where they can communicate it to other families, until all danger is passed; and no child belonging to any family that has been exposed should be allowed to attend school, or visit or play with other children so long as there is a possibility of spreading the disease. Vaccination should also be promptly attended to, where it has been neglected.


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