WASHINGTON: Brig-Gen Crawford F. Sams, who slipped behind the Red lines in Korea … to check reports of bubonic plague, said on Monday [June 18] “hundreds of thousands” of Communist troops and North Korean civilians had been killed by typhus, smallpox and typhoid fever. Brig Sams, Army Physician, would not comment on reports that smallpox cases occurred among UN troops. He said only that vaccine i[m]munization was relative and a vaccinated person might catch disease from an extremely large dose of germs.

He [said] … at a Pentagon briefing that hemorrhagic smallpox and typhoid … are still raging among Red troops and North Koreans and the Communists lack both equipment and trained men to cope with them.

[Meanwhile, according to news agencies in Karachi,] The rear portion of a four-storeyed stone building in Soldier Bazar collapsed ... while the occupants were breaking their fast in the front rooms. Two children were reported hurt. Five units of the … fire brigade used long ladders to reach some 100 occupants of the half-demolished, evacuee building, who were brought down to safety... . ... A special squad was deputed to watch the deserted building overnight.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2026