EPIDEMIC HITS CHICAGO.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 88, 15 April 1925, Page 5

EPIDEMIC HITS CHICAGO.

A STRANGE MALADY. j SCORES CARRIED OFF. j I (From Our Own correspondent.) ; SAN FRANCISCO, March 24. j What is believed to equal in i virulence the wartime influenza, which struck the United States when the world conflict was at its height, has again visited America, breaking out with awful suddenness in Chicago ami 'its immediate environs, carrying off scores of people within a few days. Business men. police, the fire department and all physicians were asked by Health Commissioner Herman Bundeseu to assist him in the fight on the in-rtuenza-like outbreak which was taking an increasing toll in life and illness in j the great American city. The daily j average of eases reached 11,272 of which were pneumonia cases, j Within 12 days 270 fatalities were officially reported, and Dr. Bundesen ; said be had not been able to deter- . mine the nature of the strange malady j which had befallen the community with ; tragic suddenness. "In some of the cases we found the presence of influenza germs, and in many others these germs were not prosent," be said. "So far as we have been able to determine, it is a respirational malady, which, while not fatal,; paves the way to influenza and pneu-j monia." J The commissioner likened the present i epidemic to the one which swept the city in ISO 2. when similar symptoms I were noted. The present malady . affects the respiratory organs, cuts down the vitality .and makes the victims easy prey to influenza or pneumonia. The victims of the strange malady were warned by burning sensations in the eves, aching pains all over the body, high * temperature and nose bleeding, i "It is not the war-time "1111..' Dr. Bun-j desen later announced. "Only one • case has been diagnosed as of the 1018 influenza type. The war-time influenz.i j was characterised by a toxic condition of the victim,, whose lungs quickly j filled with wat"r and he drowned in bis j own secretions." . Epidemic Spreading. ; '•Go to bod and stay there. Get . medical treatment at once." was the j advice of the Chicago Health Depart-1 ment. and Dr. Bundesen added that \ .diis't irritated mucus membranes of , victims and made the disease worse. He ! declared that much havoc was caused by sufferers continuing to mingle jimoiig the public expectorating and spreading the germs, with the result that hundreds of people were infected daily. lie recommended that em-! plovers have persons working under j them examined and sent home if any! symptoms appeared. ] The strange influenza epidemic subsequently made its appearance in Fort Wayne, in Indiana, and instances were jriven of healthy, strong men being i seized with the malady and succumbing in less than three days. Health authorities in Fort Wayne believed the malady was identical with the in-) fluenza which took thousands of lives j in the country during the world war and advised the people to exercise the same precautions to guard atminst its sprr.ad as were used at that time. ! Public ftherings were frowned on with j a view to preventing contamination. ■ City laboratories, both in Chicago ; and Fort Wayne, in order to mitigate the virulence of the dread scouTge, furnished free to physicians pneumonia antigen, a serum used successfully as a preventative.