Campaign Against Influenza Opened

• No dances are allowed in Multnomah County. • No visiting in hospitals, except for “grave cases,” will be allowed. Police officers will guard the entrances to all hospitals to enforce this rule. • No masks are required on the streets. • Dr. Sommer sent an urgent call for nurses via telegram. Any “practical nurses” are asked for their services as well. • All people are responsible for reporting Spanish influenza cases under state law. Physicians should report cases soon after diagnosis is made. • The General consolidated Heath Bureau opened at the 101 Courthouse building. • Director-General Sommer, who is in charge of ending the influenza epidemic, ordered all dances cancelled, arranged for 250 influenza patients to be taken into hospitals, and is planning an educational program in Multnomah County. • Dr. Sommer was given authority to lead the fight against influenza at a meeting of city and county health commissioners. • An emergency hospital will not be constructed because Dr. Sommer discovered that 250 beds can be placed in local hospitals to care for patients. • The Couch School building and, “if needed,” the army barracks at Reed College will be used as homes for convalescents. Patients who “have recovered their natural temperature” will be sent to these places. • Dr. Sommer will primarily rely on “drastic quarantine of cases” to fight influenza. • Dr. Sommer accused the City and County Medical Association of being negligent in reporting and properly isolating cases. He warned that such neglect would not be tolerated in the future. Dr. Sommer says severe punishment will befall any physician, no matter who they are, if they do not obey the reporting rule. • Dr. Sommer: “Quarantine all cases, even though they may be light.”• Dr. Sommer is meeting with representatives from theaters, stores, and other businesses in the city today to urge them to limit crowding in their businesses. • Stations where any one can get vaccinated against influenza without cost will be set up throughout Portland. • Dr. Sommer: “The conditions are far worse than many believe. An organization large enough to cope with the situation is being effected and as quickly as we can secure help we will be able to enlarge the hospital facilities. Cases of need will be handled by our organization, which has the full co-operation of state, county, and city officials. To make a success of the campaign the co-operation of every citizen is required.”• “Dr. Sommer also was emphatic in his statement that no person, regardless of station in life, would be immune from arrest in the event he failed to live strictly up to the regulations.”Newspaper article