I'm seeking any references to the amoebic dysentery epidemic that took place during the Century of Progress World's Fair of 1933. The locus of the infection was the Congress Hotel and Annex (the old Auditorium Hotel, which was connected to the Congress and shared plumbing with it). The hotel had cross-connected and corroded pipes that polluted the drinking water with amoeba from sewage. Yes, nasty topic but---it was a big event at the time since it was later estimated that as many as 1,200 people may have died, far more than even Herman W. Mudgett---the devil in the White City--- managed to off during the '93 Fair. Texas Guinan was the most famous casualty of the Congress plumbing.

The Chicago Public Health Department traced the stricken to cities all over the U.S. in an effort to find the source of the infection. Complicating their task even further was the fact that some of the victims didn't even stay at the hotel, but only ate there at banquets scheduled during the Fair. The Health Department efforts were a triumph of epidemiology at the time but apparently the entire story is almost completely forgotten because I can find very little reference to it after the initial stories in the 1930's. Anybody out there know anything more about this bit of World's Fair and Chicago history?