Parrot Fever

From Pandora's box of diseases, one, psittacosis, a stranger in the U. S., escaped last week. Two people were diagnosed dead from it, a score deathly sick--at Baltimore, Annapolis, New York, Providence, Pittsburgh, Toledo, Warren (Ohio).* All victims owned parrots newly imported from South America. The birds presumably transmitted the disease, which is peculiarly a parrot fever. The birds apparently carry the germs in their mucous membranes and in insects bred in the warmth of their underwings.

The symptoms of psittacosis resemble those of influenza, pneumonia and typhoid. In parrots the typhoid aspects predominate, in man the pneumonia. Man contracts the disease from infected birds, never so far as is known from infected man.

Surgeon General Hugh S. Gumming of the Public Health Service was not excited by the situation. He feared no epidemic. But he advised people to have caution when playing with pet parrots./-

Famed parrot-owners are Secretary of State Henry Lewis Stimson, Prince Albert de Ligne, Ambassador from Belgium, Lady Isabella Howard, wife of the retiring British Ambassador.

* The Argentine and Germany both reported new cases and fatalities last week.

/- Psittacosis is not to be confused with "hay" fever caused by dust from parrot feathers (TIME, Feb. 25).

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