Scarlet Fever Closes In on Seattle's Schools
Forty cases since April 1 and the tally still climbing — the city's health officer orders two school buildings disinfected, then finds he cannot get the supplies to do it.
Health Officer Palmer yesterday listed two more cases of scarlet fever, one in the First and one in the Fifth ward. This makes twenty-two cases reported for May and forty cases since April 1. The indications are that the disease is on the increase.
The secretary of the school board, Fred Ogden, was in consultation with Dr. Palmer yesterday relative to the disinfecting of the two school buildings supposed to be infected, the Emerson and the South. Owing to a scarcity of some of the material, the work will be delayed a few days.
“The indications are that the disease is on the increase.”
In 1896 a scarlet fever outbreak was fought with quarantine notices, schoolhouse fumigation and whatever disinfectant the city could lay hands on — and here the supply itself ran short. The same tension runs through Seattle's public health debates today: how fast can a city act when the danger is in the classroom and the logistics lag behind the alarm? The Emerson and South schools are long gone, but the arithmetic of an outbreak — cases doubling by the week, buildings shut, parents waiting — has not aged a day.
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