Typhoid Fever in Altoona

Besse sent this card of the Altoona Hospital and Nurses' Home in 1908.

On the front she writes:

Sept. 6. 08

Hello Cousin Kathryn and Jim. We got home O.K. and had a nice time. Would enjoy some more ice cream.

On the back, she continues:

We are having a very bad epidemic of typhoid fever, about 8 cases died since we are home, there are more than a hundred cases now. We are all much alarmed.

The outbreak of typhoid fever she described was written up in the Pennsylvania Medical Journal in 1917. It turns out that a local dairyman was a carrier and the disease was being spread to people who drank milk from his dairy. The dairyman eventually gave up the dairy business and went into railroad work.