MILD EPIDEMIC

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 9, 12 January 1927, Page 10

MILD EPIDEMIC

RESEMSCBS INFLUENZA

UNUSUAL FEBRH.E CONtHTION

EBECA-UTIONARY MEASURES.

Inquiries made from local medical practitioners show that there is at present a minor epidemic of influenzalike disease in Wellington / city and suburban districts—particularly in the Hutt. Valley. This disease, although attacking children principally, is not confined'to them, as adults have also been affected.

The disease is definitely infectious, as in many cases more than one member of a household has •been attacked. The disease, fortunately, is of a mild nature. There have been no deaths, and there has been a marked freedom from complications and sequelae. The characteristic of the epidemic is) in addition -to the usual febrile symptoms, an intense pain in the lower chest or abdomen, which may even at times simulate appendicitis;-and the pain lasts for a few days. It is desirable, in the - opinion of medical men, that tho" public should know of this disease so that they may be able to take the necessary steps to limit its spread when a case has once occurred in'the household. Any porson who is attacked by tho disease should be at once sent to bed and kept .there until the temperature has been-normal for -some two or three days,- and until tho pain has gone. Other inmates of the household,. particularly children, should be kept as far away from the sick person as possible. It is, of course,"'desirable that the patient should .sleep in a bedroom by himself, and that his eating utensils should be well scalded, -or preferably boiled, after each occasion of use. The observance of' these simple precautions will probably serve to .limit what is a somewhat painful disease, although apparently one of comparatively minor importance. /

Inquiries made in regard to the general influenza position show that the serious types of tho disease—pneumonic, soptieaemic, and fulminant—are at present, and 1 for some weeks have been, of very low incidence. For the four weeks ending 10th January there were in tho whole of New Zealand only sis cases and $iree deaths, which is the ordinary inter-epidemic level.