INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC

Evening Star, Issue 18333, 21 July 1923, Page 7

INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC

WIDESPREAD, BUT LESS PERNICIOUS. NO FURTHER DEATHS. Dr M'Kihhin answered the daily inquiry this morning by stating that the notifications of pneumonic cases for the twentyfour hours ended noon to-day wore: Otago four, South Otago two, Waitaki 'one, Southland four, Wallace two. Invited to state the position in a sentence, the doctor said : “ Things are improving. The whole business is going on steadily and quietly.” The report at noon t-o-day from tho Dunedin Hospital for the preceding twenty-four hours was that two patients had been admitted and one discharged, that no deaths had occurred, and that the number of influenza and pneumonia cases in the hospital wa,s twenty-six, of whom four are on the dangerously ill lust. Including seventeen nurses who are isolated in the Jubilee Ward, there were to-day thirty-one nurses and members of the Dunedin Hospital staff off duty or on sick leave.

INCIDENCE IN WELLINGTON SMALL [Feb United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, July 20. Medical men here state that tho present epidemic seems rather to be in the nature of seasonal influenza, which Is a common experience in so many countries, and which at present is prevalent also in Australia. “Wellington,” remarked one doctor to-day, “is fortunate compared with other centres; but in the South Island the epidemic is not so severe aa it was in 1920. Tiie weather conditions throughout tlic dominion, but more especially in the South, have been such as to aggravate the trouble and fasten the spread of disease.”

At present in Wellington influenza and colds are discussed a great deal in tho home and in tho street. Numbers of persons have left their offices, and the attendance at the schools has been much lower than usual. Cleansing and fumigation of some of tho public schools have been carried out. Medical men assert, however, that in many cases people who are said to have influenza have only ordinary colds and other complaints masquerading under the term of influenza. In proof of the mild nature of the epidemic here, it need only bo pointed out that there has been only one death from pneumonic influenza and two deaths from pneumonia in tho whole of this health district during the past four weeks; and the health district includes Palmerston North, Wairarapa, Wairau, Pirtom and Nelson, in addition to Wellington city and suburbs.

FRESH OASES IN CANTERBURY,

[Pee United Press Association.]

CHRISTCHURCH, July 21

Eight fresh cases of pneumonic influenza have been reported from North Canterbury and three from Ashburton in the last twenty-four hours.