INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17062, 5 February 1921, Page 8

INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC.

A RECURRENCE UNLIKELY. Ths following cabled item of news from London was published in ''The Press :! yesterday: "The report of the Ministry of Health famishes a grave warning, applicable fh tho whole world, of the •possibility of further epidemics similar to tho 1918-lf) epidemic, which was responsible for more deaths than the. whole war. A number of most eminent men state that the world's outlook m regard to future pestilences is gloomy. The report emphasises that influenza is a' mystery, disease. Despite a!) bacteriological tests and other data, medical men are at a loss to express an opinion. Conditions over wide tracts of the world will be favourable to further epidemics for at least another generation." Such a message could easily convey alarm to timorous minds, but the remarks made to a "Press" reporter vesterdnv by Dr. A. B. Pearson, pathologist sit the Cliristchurch Hospital, who has recently returned' from a visit to England, where he. continued his researches, should carry soiito assurance against the dread of another outbreak, such as was exnerienretf in November, WIS. Dr. Pearson said that his feeling was that the. Ministry of Health, in issuitisi such a warning, was not thinking of an influenza epidemic, only, but. of epidemics of other diseases. The thoughts of F.uropean medical authorities were much exercised over the prevalence of typhus in Eastern Europe, and particularly in Poland. A commißxion of medical men had been there for some time investigating this epidemic, and more recently another Commission was sent out by the Council of tho League of Nations to discover the conditions prevailing. This Commission reported that the typhus epidemic had made terrible ravages, and that in IPI9 there had been 70,000 cases of disease reported in Poland, and that in January of that year, which was the only month in which figures for the monthly period had been given, there hnd been 30,000 eases reported. The existence in epidemic form of other diseases, such as cholera, was found, but these were in a lesser degree compared witli typhus, j The epidemics were attributed to the disadvantages caused* by the Great War, I and subsequent disturbances under which the people of Poland lived. Tu that country many of the people were homeless; what homes there were were grossly overcrowded, and the food and clothing were insufficient. Also the medical sanitary w ork hsd entirely hroken down. There were no small pos-1 Nihilities of the spread of the typhus disease to Europe and Great Britain. ] The cable message referred not onlyj to an influenza, epidemic, but to em- j demies of other diseases, continued Dr. j Pearson As to influenza, there was no: question that, it was very likely to be present in the war-stneken areas of Europe, and there must be a good deal! of it in Great Britain yet, but speaking more particularly of Mew Zealand, the housing and general conditions of living were of such a high standard that the probability of diseases such as typhus, were extremely unlikely to become epidemic in the Dominion. The Public Health Department was alive to all such contingencies. Regarding influenza in this country, there was no doubt, said Dr. Pearson, that since the outbreak of 1918 the incidence of influenza, infection in the upper air passages of the body was very much greater than, was the custom before the epidemic occurred. Prior to November, WIS, it was very uncommon, in examining expectoration, to find the commonly-called influenza bacillus, but eince the epidemic that bacillus was very frequently found in the expectoration, and often in titat of persons who did not appear to be actively suffering from the disease, and were in no way inconvenienced on that account —but the fact of the bacilli there showed that they were "camera." Oa account of this, the community generally? musi he very frequently exposed to infection, hut yet there Oiad been no similar outbreak suGh as that suffered in the end of IMS'. This led to the assumption that the immunity of the population in New Zealand was now very much greater than it was before the epidemic. Dr. Pearson saw no reason why these conditions should not continue'. The question of whether the inlluenaa bacillus was the organism which caused the epidemic was still undecided, added! the pathologist. Some time last year it was reported by three eminent medical men in England, working together, that they had obtained from; five cases a "filter passing" organism which they had managed to cultivate-. A filter-passing organism was what was known as a germ which was too minute for microscopical observation, and which could pass through a substance such as a porcelain basin. Continuing, Dr. Pearson said that these medical men believed that the organism which they had discovered was the cause of influenza, and their yiews were confirmed by scientific workers in other parts of Europe and America, but a great doubt was thrown on these report's by the result of discoveries by a well-known bacteriologist working at the Lister Institute, London, whose'researches seem-: to indicate that the reported "filterpassing"' organism was not the direct, cause of influenza, and now there were> two schools of opinion in the medical world on the question.