’Flu Epidemic 'A Disaster’

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31866, 19 December 1968, Page 17

’Flu Epidemic 'A Disaster’

(N.ZP.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, December 18. The Hong Kong flu epidemic, which has affected an estimated one million sufferers in the New York City and Los Angeles areas alone, forced thousands of additional students away from their classrooms today and caused a shortage of pain-killing drugs in the nation’s largest city.

The latest available nationwide figures from the ComI municable Disease Centre, in ! Atlanta, Georgia, show 700 I deaths from flu or other respiratory diseases for the : week ended December 7. This was 200 more deaths than I expected at that time of year. : The American Red Cross I headquarters in Washington describes the effects of the epidemic “a disaster situation,” and has called on local branches to assist in meeting the needs of their communities by providing nursing care, food service, and| transportation. Some states have issued warnings of a border-to-border epidemic. The new Hong Kong strain of influenza has hit most of the nation’s major population areas and has spread swiftly because there is little or no : natural immunity to the ; virus. In New York City the rush for drugs to combat the effects of the disease has been such that delays in filling prescriptions average two ; hours, according to the Pharmaceutical Society of i New York State. The citys’ health commis- ; sioner (Mr Howard O’Rourke) I said that 500,000 people, or ! 1 out of every 16 New York- ! ers. had already been affected and he predicted that the epidemic would reach its peak during the first week in ! January.

But in Philadelphia and Baltimore, health officials said the outbreak had already reached its peak, and the number of cases would now decline. Many hospitals throughout the nation have restricted visits to patients and limited surgery to prevent exposing patients to the virus. In Gary, Indiana, 25 per cent of the police force are reported ill.