'First line of defence' has collapsed in biggest ever outbreak of rare Ebola strain

Bubonic plague has existed in Lima, Peru, since last October, but news concerning it was suppressed until a few weeks ago, when danger of an epidemic made publicity imperative. Irving B. Dudley, United States minister to Peru, has just informed the State Department fully of the conditions. He says fear of quarantine and financial loss prevented Peruvian officials from letting the public know of the danger until plague patients fell dead on the streets, and the public resisted the removal of sick persons to the lazarettos, not knowing the nature of their sickness. Eighty cases of plague have been treated in pest houses in Lima and about 40 per cent of the cases have proved fatal. Twenty-three new cases have appeared in three weeks, and in one day there were four deaths. The disease is confined to several city blocks and attacks persons of the better class as well as the peasants. The cases do not seem to have a common origin, but several have been traced to plantations adjoining Lima. Other Peruvian ports are said to be free of the disease. Dr. Biffii, the Italian bacteriologist in the employ of Peru, says he thinks the plague cannot be stamped out in Lima immediately.