Now Watch for Typhus at OWS
Jack Kemp, with a follow up on his post about OWS Atlanta and tuberculosis:
I thought of - but didn't include - that the OWS sanitary conditions resembled those of Auschwitz or the British detention camps on Cyprus for Jewish refugees captured on the high seas trying to get to Palestine. But I thought it was too over the top.
In concentration camps and perhaps the Andersonville Confederate prison in the 1860s, people got typhus in unsanitary conditions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhus
Typhus was also common in prisons (and in crowded conditions where lice spread easily), where it was known as gaol fever or jail fever, and often occurs when prisoners are frequently huddled together in dark, filthy rooms. Thus, "Imprisonment until the next term of court" was often equivalent to a death sentence. It was so infectious that prisoners brought before the court sometimes infected the court itself. Following the Assize held at Oxford in 1577, later deemed the Black Assize, over 300 died from Epidemic typhus, including Sir Robert Bell Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. During the Lent Assize Court held at Taunton (1730) typhus caused the death of the Lord Chief Baron, as well as the High Sheriff, the sergeant, and hundreds of others. During a time when there were 241 capital offenses, more prisoners died from 'gaol fever' than were put to death by all the public executioners in the British realm. In 1759, an English authority estimated that each year a quarter of the prisoners had died from Gaol fever.[5] In London, typhus frequently broke out among the ill-kept prisoners of Newgate Gaol and then moved into the general city population.
I also sent a copy of this article to Dr. Linda Halderman, a surgeon, former AT writer, Fresno resident and conservative member of the California State Legislature. She can understand and describe disease condition development in the OWS-Downtown Los Angeles (near Skid Row) area a whole lot better than I can. Also sent a copy to Republican NY City Councilman Dan Halloran (I interviewed him in our 9/11 documentary and worked as a poll watcher for him).
I thought of - but didn't include - that the OWS sanitary conditions resembled those of Auschwitz or the British detention camps on Cyprus for Jewish refugees captured on the high seas trying to get to Palestine. But I thought it was too over the top.
In concentration camps and perhaps the Andersonville Confederate prison in the 1860s, people got typhus in unsanitary conditions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhus
Typhus was also common in prisons (and in crowded conditions where lice spread easily), where it was known as gaol fever or jail fever, and often occurs when prisoners are frequently huddled together in dark, filthy rooms. Thus, "Imprisonment until the next term of court" was often equivalent to a death sentence. It was so infectious that prisoners brought before the court sometimes infected the court itself. Following the Assize held at Oxford in 1577, later deemed the Black Assize, over 300 died from Epidemic typhus, including Sir Robert Bell Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. During the Lent Assize Court held at Taunton (1730) typhus caused the death of the Lord Chief Baron, as well as the High Sheriff, the sergeant, and hundreds of others. During a time when there were 241 capital offenses, more prisoners died from 'gaol fever' than were put to death by all the public executioners in the British realm. In 1759, an English authority estimated that each year a quarter of the prisoners had died from Gaol fever.[5] In London, typhus frequently broke out among the ill-kept prisoners of Newgate Gaol and then moved into the general city population.
I also sent a copy of this article to Dr. Linda Halderman, a surgeon, former AT writer, Fresno resident and conservative member of the California State Legislature. She can understand and describe disease condition development in the OWS-Downtown Los Angeles (near Skid Row) area a whole lot better than I can. Also sent a copy to Republican NY City Councilman Dan Halloran (I interviewed him in our 9/11 documentary and worked as a poll watcher for him).
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 4:45 AM
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