INFLUENZA ANALYSIS

Evening Star, Issue 19275, 14 June 1926, Page 3

INFLUENZA ANALYSIS

THE 1918 PANDEMIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT'S REASSURING STATEMENT The Department of Health lias issued the following reassuring statement on influenza; — Influenza wo prevalent in England and Western Europe and in North America last winter, not with anything like the severity of the pandemic, of 1918-19, but sufficient to take toll of many old and very young persons. Tile last epidemic of this disease in New Zealand was in 1920, in which year 480 deaths occurred froin influenza and 523 from pneumonia. The South Island was most affected, and the : victims were principally the very old and the very young. its bacteriology, its real and positive causative factors, have not vet been conclusively laid down. Whether there i.s on I v one influenza of varying degree of intensity and of rapidity of extension in a community, or several varieties so distinct as almost to deserve to be classed as separate diseases, js a question yet to bo adequately settled | by medical authority. Certainly the calamity of its occurIre nee in "the pandemic of 1918-19, 1 which caused 6,7!6 deaths in New Z.m- . laud, and it is estimated twenty million throughout the world (the worst catastrophe of the sort that has visited the human race since the Black Death of the Middle Ages'), gave arnp'o evidence of the malignity of some disease, then known ns influenza, whether it was a specific and now one or one merely of i accentuated vinilomo upon occasion, j During the Groat War preceding that j pandemic millions of human beings had I their environment suddenly and coniI plntely changed, and were crowded to- ! pother in troopships, liniments, and ■ dug-outs. ! Infectious disease, moreover, is ' Nature's radical deterrent to over- | crowding. "Witness the gaol fever of 1 olden days, the high infectious disease i death rates of crowded cities, particularly the baneful effects of overcrowdl ing of persons in living rooms, and I on the other hand New Zealand’s low j mortality from infectious disease.

."Rapid passage through susceptible animals exalts the virulence of many gems. Whether or not the influenza of 1918 was n new disease, it certainly ip most parts of the world was greeted like one and In’mced like one.

Clinically, it differed from pur" ordinary influenza. Its haemorrhages, the heliotrope face, its greater duration, and the fact that its mortality was greatest in the middle-aged and robust, whereas the di°ease we normally know as influenza, kills mostly the nkl and the very young, arc examples of difference.

In many parts of the world the time of its importation could he told to n day. The s.s. Demerana. from Lisbon by way of Africa, brought it to Rio do Janeiro on September 17, ami to Buenos Aires on September 20. A steamer from Auckland is said to have introduced |fc into Western Ramon o" November 7. It. was brought to Tahiti on November 16 on the steamship Narna. from Ran Francisco; and its introduction into certain Army camps was known to the day and hour.

Of influenza, generally, it may lie said, almost invariably its first notable advent in any nmmnnitv is in some city or town of measurable dzo. Rnoh an observation gives the best clue to its method of distribution. Of, all in-fe'-t.inus diseases ft is essentially the one of crowded and largo indoor gathor’ings.

It is spread from person to person, and month spray and finger to mouth P’feetion are recorded as the most lik°ly means of spread. If’.one. is unlucky or careless enough to contract influenza, he is net to suppose lie oan fight tho thing off hv pursuing his ordinary course of life Without doubt the disease may run its course without much untoward result except a lengthening of it hv such procedure. but such action multiplies the chances of his being assailed by pneumonia..

He is to go to bed, and ; f the mere hod threatens to prove ineffective, call the medical man. If all did this indoor crowds would lose their dangers, hut in the absence of Oils ’deal condition it is wise during epidemic periods to eschew large and crowded indoor assemblies. Pneumonia us an inflammation of the lungs caused by germs in great variety. It may complicate, influenza. mea.sKs. and other infectious diseases, and should always ho isolated and treated a.s eonveyahl© t r } others. Tim roughing and sneezing of the patient are things to lie avoided. Sputum and sputum rags should he conveyed hv the patient into vessels containing disinfectant, such as carbolic, one part in twenty of water, and acute pneumonia generally should ho treated a.s infections illness.

Bacteriological literature abounds with descriptions of many germs regarded as causes of influenza, hut responsible State Ministries of Health admit- that its bacteriology is still uncertain.

Without another world war it is unlikely that New’ Zealand will again experience tho catastrophe of 1918; hut, judging from experience of the past, there may bo occasional visitations of severe influenza of the ordinary type. Besides the aforementioned precautions requisite for epidemic periods, an open-air life, open windows, good food, and cleanliness, all easily attainable in New Zealand, constitute at present the best- preventive of this disease.