INFLUENZA.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 8, 11 January 1927, Page 6

INFLUENZA.

The epidemic of influenza in Europe is serious, but exactly how serious is not yet clear. Mere numbers of cases tell us only half the story. Size of populations has to be considered, and virulence of the disease. Geneva reports that the cases in Switzerland outnumber those of 1918, but it is not stated whether the form of the disease is as severe as in that worst of years, when, so it is estimated, twenty million people died throughout the world. Influenza is both epidemic and endemic, and its virulence and symptoms vary in a way that continues to puzzle the doctors. In the visitation of 1918 the deathrate in England and Wales was ' 2997 per million people. In the wave of 1922 it fell to 563. A medical correspondent said of the disease in 1922 that it was the third recurrent wave since the epidemic of 1918, and that the phenomenon of recurrent waves was quite in accord with what was known of the history of influenza, a history that goes back definitely to the twelfth century. "In all epidemics of which the facts are known, the great tidal wave has been followed by those minor waves of repercussion. It would appear as' if the cause of influenza, whatever it is, waits for a generation unprotected by any natural or acquired immunity. The first assault kills off or immunises its victims, but, lying in wait, the foe finds at intervals of a little less than a ye«~- a fresh though minor crop for the reaping." If this is so, the present visitation in Europe would seem to be a minor rather than a major wave. In New Zealand we experienced a fairly severe epidemic only a few months ago, and it is possible that this conferred some degree of immunity. The Health Department will keep an eye upon sources of infection from without. Advice to the individual can easily be overdone. All that need be said is that they should live wisely and not worry.