Armstrong – Table of Contents

instructed them to place dirty pelts, skins and bedding out in the intense daytime sunshine
of the elevated reservation plateau (about 6,000 feet) in hopes that this might have a
destructive effect on the infested objects. The team explained the dangers of spreading
the disease through the medium of the “sings.” Since the Navajo dreaded being deprived
of their local healers, the team allowed the “sings” to continue but only under the
following conditions: the medicine man had to go singly; he could not permit friends and
neighbors to collect; the singer had to be free of vermin and could go only after the
patient, clothing and bedding had been deloused; the singer also had to be deloused
before leaving the premises or mingling with other households. The medicine men
cooperated fully with this approach, and none of them developed typhus following
implementation of the plan. Additionally, the adoption of this approach resulted in
cessation of new typhus cases that could be attributed to the “sings.”
Prior to the availability of improvised general delousing equipment (since the team found
it impossible to purchase suitable equipment in the available markets), the team
commenced delousing individual cases at once as soon as a diagnosis was made. The
patient was bathed in a nicotine sulfate 1:1,000 solution. Clothing and bedding were
either boiled or treated with nicotine sulfate or distillate. The team also deloused other
members of the family as well as inhabitants of any nearby neighboring hogans. The
team repeated delousing at intervals of not more than six days. In the absence of
sufficient time and official personnel, the team entrusted local attendants to perform
repeat delousing following the first. The team did not have the means to delouse the
hogans. The clean Army tents, that the team made attempts to request, did not arrive until
well after the epidemic emergency had passed.