HEALTH NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 164, 12 June 1926, Page 10

HEALTH NOTES

INFLUENZA AND PNEUMONIA. SEVERE EPIDEMIC IMPROBABLE. PRECAUTIONS AGAINST ORDINARY INFLUENZA. Influonza was 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. The last epidemic of this disease in New Zealand was in 1920, in which year 480 deaths occurred from influenza and 528 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 yet been conclusively laid down. Whether there is only 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 separato diseases, is a question yet to be adequately settled by medical authority. THE PANDEMIC OF 1918. Certainly the calamity of its occurrence in the pandemic of 1918-19, which caused 6716 deaths in New Zealand, 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 ample evidence of the malignity of some disease, then known as influenza, whether it was a specific and new one or one merely of accentuated virulence upon occasion. During the Great War preceding that pandemic millions of human beings had their environment suddenly and completely changed and Were crowded together in troopships, hutments, and dugouts. Infectious disease moreover is Nature’s radical deterrent to overcrowding; witness the gaol fever of olden days, the high infectious disease death rates of crowded cities, particularly the baneful effects of overcrowding or persons in living-rooms, and on the other hand. New Zealand’s low mortality from infectious disease. Rapid passage through susceptibleanimals exalts the virulence of many germs. Whether or not the influenza of 1918 was a new disease it certainly in most parts of the world was greeted like one and behaved like one. Clinically it differed from our ordinary influenza. Its hemorrhages, the heliotrope face, its greater duration, and the fact that its mortality was greatest in the middle-aged and robust, whereas the disease we normally know as influenza kills mostly the old and the very young, are examples ol difference. lii many parts of tho world th© timo of its importation could be told to a day. The s.s. Demerana from Lisbon by way of Africa brought it to Rio do Janeiro on 17th September and to Buenos Aires on 25th September. A steamer from Auckland is said to have introduced it into Western Samoa on 7th November. It was brought to Tahiti on 16th November on the steamship Navua from San Francisco; and its introduction into certain Army camps was known to tho day. and hour. „„„ ___ ORDINARY ENDEMIC INFLUENZA. Of influenza generally, it may bo said, almost invariably its first notable advent in any community is in somo city or town of ni©asurabl© size. Such an observation gives the best clue to its method of distribution. Of all infectious diseases it is essentially the one of crowded and large and indoor gatherings. It is spread from person to person, and mouth spray and finger to mouth infection are regarded as the most likely means of spread. PRECAUTIONS. If one is unlucky or careless enough to contract influenza lie is not to suppos© h© can fight the thing off hy pursuing his ordinary course of life. Without doubt the disease may run its course without much untoward result except a lengthening of it by such procedure, but such action multiplies the chances of his being assailed by pneumonia. He is to go to bed and if the mere bed threatens to prove ineffective, call the medical man. If all did this, indoor crowds would lose their dangers, but in the absence of this ideal condition it is wise during epidemic periods to eschew large and crowded indoor assemblies. PNEUMONIA. Pneumonia is an Inflammation of the lungs caused by germs m great variety. It may complicate influenza, measles and other infectious diseases, and should always be isolated and treated as conveyable to others. The coughing and sneezing of the patient are things to be avoided. Sputum and sputum rags should bo conveyed .by the patient into vessels containing disinfectant such as carbolic 1 part in 20 of water, and acute pneumonia generally should be treated as infectious illness. Bacteriological literature abounds with descriptions of many germs regarded as causes of influenza, but responsible State Ministries of Health admit that its bacteriology is still uncertain. Without another world war, it is unlikely that Now Zealand will again experience the catastrophe of 1918; but judging from experience of the past, there may be occasional visitations of severe influenza of the ordinary type. . Besides the afore-mentioned 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. Department of Health, Wellington, June, 1926.