The Dominion FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1929. AN EVASIVE PESTILENCE

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 121, 15 February 1929, Page 10

The Dominion FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1929. AN EVASIVE PESTILENCE

/ A sharp rise in the incidence of influenza in the United States and Europe, accentuated in the latter area by the extreme seventy of the present cold snap, comes as a reminder that as yet no meai s have been found for preventing the disease. This evasive pestilence claims thousands of victims every year, and in those, periodic intervals when its epidemic character becomes marked, and its virulence intensified, the death-roll may assume appalling proportions.. Apart from its heavy toll on human life,.the. economic loss due to the disorganisation of business’and industry by-the attenuation oi staffs must be very great. Severe attacks are liable to. leave in individual cases more or less permanent incapacity for their tormer duties and lower their powers of,resistance to ; other, diseases. Influenza, in short, constitutes a social and..eco.noniic-problem as .well as a baffling medical one. .. ‘ ; - ’ , Although definite means of controlling the disease have not yet been discovered, considerable progress in that direction has been ■made by research workers? For some time past the British Medical Research Council has been exploring certain avenues opened up by a theory that influenza is a virus disease, amenable to vaccine inoculation. ■ This theory was developed from the resu ts of successful research work carried out in connection with the. well-known; canine disorder known as distemper. It had previously, been .observed that influenza and distemper presented certain- points of similarity, lite Field country journal, generously supported by its readers, a fund for the work, and, in a report subsequently published, it was demonstrated that' distemper could be prevented by the inoculation of young dogs<by . specially-prepared vaccines.. These am.ma.s acquired a solid immunity even in the presence of virulent infection. Further impetus was-, given to-the -influenza research workers by the conclusions arrived at by Sir William Fletcher that yellow fever was also a virus'disease, and, it is stated, there is evidence that vaccine inoculation is an effective preventive. . These .results have justified the research workers in hoping that influenza may pro\e to be a virus disease, not a bacillus disease. There has been a great advance ip the knowledge gained by medical science on the subject of viruses. By some it is Jield that measles, mumps, and possibly whooping-cough,■ which levy a severe toll on the nations child-life, are also virus diseases.- „ While as yet nothing definite -has been proved, it is generally agreed in England that this new line of research already has. revealed hopeful possibilities.. . Should, these, anticipations be, realised, t.ie .way. will be clear for energetic measures; and grateful nations will applaud the successful research workers in their war, against what 1 Pasteur described, as “the world of the infinitely- small.