Northwest History. Alaska. Epidemics & Contagious Diseases.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1935
• Subjects: flu; Point Barrow; ice breaks; food supply; Wainwright; Alaska-Washington Military Cables; radio; Ernest P. STowell; dog team; Henry W. Greist; medical missionary; Nome; Eskimos; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Alaska; Pacific; Barrow; eskimo*
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/90721

"Flu" Spreads From Barrow To Villages: Ships Unable To Reach Area Till Summer; More Doctors And Nurses Are Needed. 'Flu' Spreads From Barrow To Villages: Ships Unable to Reach Area Till Summer; More Doctors and Nurses Are Needed As a possible complication to the influenza epidemic sweeping Point Barrow, it was learned yesterday that the food supply is dwindling and fuel stock low, with no ships able to get in till the ice breaks. Food and fuel ma/ have to be sent in by dog train or plane. The influenza epidemic was sweeping through the native villages east of Point Barrow, bringing the death toll to fourteen persons since its outbreak. In the villages east of Point Barrow, bringing the death toll to fourteen persons since its outbreak. In the village of Wainwright alone there were two hundred new cases reported, the disease having touched nearly every inhabitant, the Alaska-Washington Military Cables learned by radio. Ernest P. Stowell, government teacher at Wainwright, sent word of the community's plight and plea for medical aid by dog team from Point Barrow. MORE HELP NEEDED Henry W. Greist, medical nary connected with the Presbyterian mission hospital at Point Barrow, dispatched medicine and instructions for the treatment of ill persons and requested Nome by radio to send a nurse and doctor for the little settlement. Wainwright is a hundred miles from Point Barrow. Previously a plane, carrying a doctor, a nurse and vaccine and other medical supplies toward Point Barrow had turned back on radio advice that the additional help and supplies were not immediately needed. Point Barrow had not heard from Wainwright at that time. In the sheds in back of the Point Barrow mission lie Point Barrow's dead, one white man and ten Eskimos, frozen. The temperature was 2 degrees below zero yesterday. The ground is too deeply frozen for grave digging.