THE EPIDEMIC.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16407, 30 December 1918, Page 8

THE EPIDEMIC.

NAPIER'S DEATH BOIL. (rnESS ASSOCIATION* telegram.) ' w NAPIER, December 28. The deaths registered in the Napier district since November total 135, of which 102 are stated to bo due to influenza. - TONGA AND FIJI STRICKEN. (.PRESS ASSOCIATION* TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, December 28. Details of tho influenza outbreak at Tonga show that in Nukualofa there were 400 deaths of natives and eight of whites. „ About ten per cent, of the population died, the victims including the Dowager-Queen. All trade was brought to a standstill, and communication with other islands of the group was.cut off. The only doctor in the group had left' for Fiji a few days before the outbreak, and the shortage of drugs greatly increasod the difficulty of fighting the epidemic. _ Help arrived from Fiji on December sth, and the epidemic was 'then oheoked within tho port and country districts. In the Fiji group the death roll is estimated at over lOOi), while of Suva's bOOO inhabitants 4000 were stricken. The outbreak began with the arrival of the Talune on November 16th, and spread like wildfire throughout the group. Thirty or forty deaths occurred every day, and the natives absolutely refused to assist in fighting the epidemic or attending the sick or convalescent. They even refused to bury the dead. On December 9th. when the mail left, the epidemic was J checked in Suv'a, but was only starting i n V l6 , ou ' i districts, whence appeals for help were coming in. 'It was roared that in these districts, beyond the pale of civilisation, the death rate would b© very heavy, Suva cable messages state that Suva is notr practically clear of influenza, there being no fresh cases in the country districts, and the epidemic ig dimind£f S Sixty-eight Europeans

HOW SERUM IS'MADE. , Cumpston, Federal Directer of Quarantine, decided upon the manufacture of a special serum for the treatment of pneumonic influenza, his first step (says an exchange) was to send a doctor from Melbourne to Sydney to isolate the strains from the influenza, patients who came on the Niagara. Other strains were procured from a quarantine officer in West Australia, and also isolated. _ The cultivation then •began. The strains used in the preparation are influenza, which grows on l °°u a S ar ' P ne umococcus, or glucose it ' streptococcus, and the common cold organism. .The streptococci are taken from septic patients, and grow on broth prepared from ox heart muscle ant *. peptone. Common cold germs are cultivated on agarj which is a Japanese seaweed preparation. Blood agar is obtained by mixing horse blood with agar solution. The various germs are then placed on the surface of these preparations, and stored in a heated room with a temperature of 97 degrees (blood heat) for 24 hours. One germ will multiply in 20 minutes, eo that at the end °r ° storage there are hundreds of thousands of millions of these organisms. '

The influonza perm is the smallest bacillus the scientists hare to deal with. Its length is on© 25.000 th part of an inch, and it is very delicate. The next step is the collection of the harvest, which is drawn into separate containers by syphonage. The germs are then killed 'vnth tricresol, and after having •been sterilised, certain fractions of the harvest are diluted with sterile salt solution, and the special vaccine is ready for bottling and suitable for inoculation. The solution is placed in tubes, which aro immediately sealed. The serum is made in two strengths. The first dose onlv contains 25 million influenza organisms to a cubic centimetre, while the second contains 125 millions. This is to allow the person to become accus- j tomed to the preparation before injecting the stronger dose after the interval of seven days.