SCOURGING THE CITY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 14503, 15 October 1907, Page 3

SCOURGING THE CITY.

THE INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC. What the Dominion in general and Christchurch in particular has been doing lately to merit the scourging now being applied matters little. Influenza, according to the most curious authorities, is no attendant upon circumstances. As the people of Christchurch know to their sorrow, it makes no discrimination in its call for victims, and draws little distinction between the man of plethoric habit and creaky lungs and him who walks each Sunday to Governor’s Bay and exercises between whiles.

Influenza is so common a maladv, however, and one that up to a certain point is so striven against that its victims sometimes, , their acquaintances often, and their employers ©till more often, regard it as a trivial thing, as “only influenza.” But a Christchurch doctor told a reporter yesterday that that was not giving “la*grippe” the respect due to it, 'lnfluenza, he said, was a diseas* apparently dependent upon, no special circumstances. Its ravages might be only limited, or they might be very extensive. In th© present case they were not only extensive but spread over a period, in Christchurch commencing about last May. Each epidemic- had generally some feature distinguishing it from others of the same kind, and that was peculiarly the case with influenza. On one recent epidemic visitation of the disease, the victims were laid low, in some cases with great suddenness, by th© affection of th© muscles, and on another occasion the attack seemed most to affect the abdomen and seriously derange • the digestive organs. The present epidemic, in his observation, had two phases. First, a great number of patients suffered seriously from derangements of the liver and gall bladder, and medical men found themselves saddled with quite a number of cases of jaundice, ordinarily not a disease frequently met with. Then the epidemic became less pronounced for a time, till it again spread. This time the thorax was th© chief seat of the attack. Tb© disease seemed to be of a tvpo more sever© than usual, with a dangerous tendency to recur, and a risk of pneumonia supervening on a relapse. Between fifty and sixty deaths had taken place in Christchurch lately, which were almost directly attributable to influenza, generally through subsequent attacks of pleuro-pnenmonia. Asked for a few words of general advice. the doctor said that it was practically necessary to lie up. the danger from th© present form of influenza being considerably greater than that of previous ’ epidemics. Then, after .apparent recovery, which should he in' three or four days, the patient should not go out, ror risk taking cold for some days. ,Tt was -in the few days following recovery tnat th© risk of pneumonia lay. Car© should also h« taken not to he more than possible with those suffering from the disease, on account of the risk of infection. Thoniries show that the extent of. th© malady is well recognised. Almost every office has had its staff shortened; almost every household has had two or jhree members “down.” Heads of departments and public officers have been removed from duty. Many people hare been removed for weeks from the work-a-day world, and when they return, looking probably little tb© worse hut a few pounds lighter, they find others gone. , ”