When five children died within a few days in the Pantano area, public officials took notice and worked to find the cause and prevent the spread of the disease.
From the Arizona Daily Star, June 17, 1916:
PANTANO SWEPT BY EPIDEMIC OF NEW MALADY
County Authorities Act Quickly to Arrest Spread to Tucson; Mortality Rate High Among Children; Inquest Today
An epidemic of some disease which county authorities have not yet been able to identify, is raging at Pantano, having claimed five victims, all children, within a few days, according to information brought to the city yesterday. In order to stem, if possible, the further spread of the disease at Pantano and to prevent its communication to other parts of the county and the state, Dr. Schnabel and Sheriff Forbes, under orders from the county board of health, left yesterday afternoon at 4 o’clock for Pantano, with instructions to clean up the place.
The mortality rate of the disease is exceedingly high and it is apparently highly contagious. County authorities received word yesterday that another had been added to the death list, a child, making a total, it is said, of five deaths since the first appearance of the disease several days ago.
The epidemic spread from a camp of Southern Pacific railroad section employees and their families. The majority of them, it is said, came recently from Mexico and, it is believed, brought the disease over the border.
When news of the epidemic was brought to the city yesterday, Dr. Schnabel went to Pantano and reported to County Attorney Hilzinger upon his return. While he was unable to identify the disease from his casual observation yesterday, he said he was satisfied that it was caused by bad sanitation, the camp being in an extremely filthy condition.
Chairman Estill, of the county board of health, being out of the city, County Attorney Hilzinger called a meeting of the board, at which the epidemic was discussed. It was decided to have made a thorough clean-up of the camp and to take stringent methods of preventing the spread of the disease to other parts of the county. Accordingly, Dr. Schnabel and Sheriff Forbes were instructed to go to Pantano and institute a clean-up campaign.
An inquest will be held in the case of the child who died yesterday, in order to determine the nature of the disease and its causes.
Sheriff Forbes and Doctor Schnabel returned to the city last night. The sheriff said that the total of deaths, so far as they could ascertain, might be as high as eight. Doctor Schnabel now believes that the deaths have been caused by acute bronchitis caused by exposure while the children were recuperating from whooping cough. At Pantano the nights are very cool, and it is believed that lack of sufficient covering made the victims an early prey to bronchitis.
This may serve to make many of us grateful that we now have vaccines to prevent many dangerous diseases, especially those that can be fatal to our children.
