Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1920. INFLUENZA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2090, 14 February 1920, Page 2

Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1920. INFLUENZA.

IT is pointed out by the Health Department that prior to 1918, when the big epidemic drew so much afield ion to the subject of influenza, there was annually considerable (heath,rate from this cause, which occasioned no alarm whatever. Since ihe epidemic of 191.3 inlluenza, has been made a notifiable disease, and therefore increased interest has centred round the numbers of notifications and the numbers of deaths. Following is a table showing the death-rate for the past 14 years; — l!)(»(> 132 1907 233 1908 04 ■ 1909 47 1910 11l 1911 03 1912 05 1913 50 1914 ' 03 1915 no 1916 73 1917 38 1918 0089 1919 (approximate) 150 “It will be seen, then," remarked the Acting-Chief Health Officer (Dr. 11. H. Makgill), when, referring to the figures quoted above, “that every year inlluenza accounts for a varying number of deaths, the highest on the list, apart from t he exceptional year, being .1907, yet, though the deaths were then 223 in number, no one showed the least alarm; indeed, the’ fact that there was an epidemic of influueza that year was known'only to a few. We have not yet received the complete returns for 1919, but during January of that year we .were still suffering from the after-effects .of the great epidemic of November, 1918, and dyring that month there were 57 deaths. From July to December, 1919, there were.no more than 50 deaths recorded. Although there was a considerable epidemic of influenza in 1919 which caused no little alarm, probably the rota! number of deaths for the year would he found to be well under 150, and therefore not in excess of many previously recorded years. The mere existence of influenza in epidemic form is nothing new, and should not create alarm. Were it nut for the fact that the disease is notifiable, and that the statistics are published from day to day, it is .questionable whether the present epidemic would ha\je attracted public attention.”