Will 'Flu Epidemic Spread To N.Z.?
(S.R.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 9. “gS influenza in epidemic form -® likely to spread from the Northern Hemisphere to New Zealand?”
This question was put to medical authorities in Wellington, their reaction being that they must await the professional journals before coming to a conclusion that the cabled statements were based on reliable sources.
The periodicity theory of a 25 to 30-year cycle had been put forward, it was explained, but it had not always worked out. Air travel has increased the risk of introducing such types of diseases from overseas.
The disastrous influenza epidemic following the First World War originated in the Northern Hemisphere, and its introduction to New Zealand was definitely proved to be due to overseas arrivals.
However, the mass movement of men after the last war was completed without the transmission of disease throughout the world. If the 1918 threat of an epidemic recurred today, there are penicillin and sulpha drugs available. Experience has proved that they provide a highly effective defence against the complications associated with influenza, a defence not in existence when New Zealand suffered the worst epidemic in its history.
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Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22816, 10 December 1948, Page 6
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191Will 'Flu Epidemic Spread To N.Z.? Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22816, 10 December 1948, Page 6
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