"Flu" Now Epidemic

440 new cases and 8 deaths reported in city. May close public schools. Camp Meade has 22 deaths and 6300 men are stricken with disease. Almost every county shows cases and deaths. 440 new cases and 8 deaths in the city yesterday. 353 cases in the counties. State Department of Health was notified of 944 sick soldiers at Camp Meade. Health Commissioner John D. Blake and President James W. Chapman discussed the situation of the Baltimore Schools. No decision to close them reached. From a survey at one of the schools, of 783 students, 219 absent presumably because of the disease. 176 out of 430 students at the parochial school were absent. Dr. Blake indicates the difficulty in deciding to close the schools, potentially exposing children to 'mingling with playmates and the crowds in the streets, in the electric cars and in the moving picture theatre'. Dr. C. Hampton Jones, chief of the State Bureau of Communicable Diseases saw no need to close schools, churches, or theatres. New cases from counties. Allegany: 68, Aune Arundel: 27, Baltimore: 73, Carroll: 34, Cecil:19, Charles: 18, Frederick: 23, Garrett: 20, Howard:13, Montgomery: 5, Prince George: 4, Queen Anne: 1, Washington: 1, Wicomico: 36, and Worcester: 11. Drug stores in bad shape with prescriptions piling up because of the war and scarcity of help. United Railways would have their cars thoroughly ventilated. 22 deaths reported at Camp Meade. Number of cantonment since beginning of epidemic is 64. 6300 men suffering from the disease (1/8 of the population of the camp). 40 cases of pneumonia. 22 victims were Marylanders.Newspaper article1