I found these news stories interesting. I had a High School class mate in Alberta who contracted ‘Sleeping Sickness’ while visiting relatives in Manitoba. She missed a year of school.
In the summer of 1941 the cause of “Sleeping Sickness” (Encephalitis) was unknown. Horses were still common on farms in the United States and Canada. The chance of buying a tractor was limited. The raw material needed to make a tractor was diverted to the ‘war effort’.
The cause of ‘Sleeping Sickness’ was eventually identified as Equine Encephalitis, which was transmitted between infected ‘hosts’ by mosquitoes. A vaccine for horses was developed.
From the Moose Jaw Times Herald, Thursday, August 7, 1941
“Seek to Stop the Spread of Encephalitis as Sixty Die in U.S.
“Fargo, North Dakota, August 7, 1941 – (AP) – A baffling malady possibly mosquito-borne, has a special medical corps working night and day in the United States northwest in an attempt to stop spread of the disease which has killed some 60 persons in little more than a month.
“Doctors call the infection encephalitis or sleeping sickness. Where it comes from, what causes it and how to stop it is the grave problem confronting medical scientists gathered here under Dr. James P. Leake, of Washington medical health service.
“The outbreak started somewhere in this area a few weeks ago. Since then it has spread, touching many parts of the state and scattered sections of South Dakota and Minnesota. The latest death count is 37 in North Dakota, 19 in Minnesota and three in South Dakota but the toll is probably higher than those figures.”
The ‘infected’ mosquitoes did not recognize the U.S – Canada Border (then or now). They also infected Canadians, mostly in Manitoba.
Moose Jaw Times Herald, Tuesday, August 26, 1941
“U.S., Canada Studying Encephalitis
“Winnipeg, August 26, 1941 – (CP) – Authorities of the Federal Health Services of Canada, and United States are conferring here on Manitoba’s spreading epidemic of sleeping sickness.
“From North Dakota, where they had been studying the epidemic there, came Dr. James P Leake of Washington, authority on epidemics in the United States Public Health Service; Dr. T. J. Hill of Bismarck, North Dakota, chief of the division of preventative diseases in the department of health in North Dakota, and Dr. R. J. Gibbons, assistant chief of the Dominion Hygiene Laboratory at Kamloops, B.C.
“Dr. G. D. W. Cameron, chief of laboratory of hygiene at Ottawa, also spent a short visit here before continuing on to Regina to survey the situation in that district.
“The United States doctors said the Manitoba disease appeared to be the same which had been raging in North Dakota and Minnesota. (Meaning you can’t trust a mosquito to stay home)
“Authorities today reported that during the week-end sleeping sickness cases had soared from 205 to 259 cases in the province. No new deaths in the disease were reported, leaving the total encephalitis deaths at 16.”
Smug Alberta wasn’t without problems.
Moose Jaw Times Herald, Thursday, September 18, 1941
“Medicine Hat, Alberta
“Sixty-One Cases of Encephalitis Threaten City
“According to the report of the Medicine Hat Health Officer for the month of August, there were 33 cases of Encephalitis originating in the city during that month and 26 other cases treated which originated at points outside the city. Only one death resulted during August, in the total of 61 cases.”
