Tapanui flu claim hit

Press, 12 September 1984, Page 1

Tapanui flu claim hit

The Medical Officer of Health in Christchurch, Dr Bill Malpress, is being “unhelpful and irresponsible” by saying that there had been no cases of Tapanui flu in the city, says a visiting expert on the subject. “What he (Dr Malpress) is implying is that the people suffering so much stress and upset in their families are having that for no reason at all,” said Professor Campbell Murdoch, head of general practice at the Otago Medical School. “If the Health Department is not interested in relieving the , suffering of people in the community I really don’t see what the department is doing here at all,” he said.

"There is no doubt in my mind that there are many cases of myalgic encephalomyelitis (M.E.) in Christchurch. I have met most of them,” said Dr Murdoch. “The underlying problem with Dr Malpress is that he doesn’t believe that M.E. exists.”

Professor Murdoch admitted that there were complex diagnostic problems with the condition, because of the variety of symptoms. “The way the patient is up one day and down the next presents very real diagnosis problems for the general practitioner,” Professor Murdoch said. However, there were sig-

nificant symptoms which could not be overlooked, such as tenderness in muscles. Professor Murdoch and his colleagues have been studying the condition for some time and have found that all M.E. sufferers had a high level of lactic acid in the tissue. Studies had also shown that a high level of serum B'ns in the body afthe red blood corpuscles, which carried oxygen in the blood. M.E. caused an increase in the serum proteins. This theory worked in well with the one known remedy for M.E. — rest, Professor Murdoch said. “The more you are resting, the easier it is to be supplied with oxygen through the blood,” he said.