'Flu Epidemic Rages In Northern Italy

Northern Advocate, 15 December 1943, Page 3

'Flu Epidemic Rages In Northern Italy

LONDON, December 14 An Influenza epidemic is spreading rapidly in German-controlled Northern Italy, reports a British United Press correspondent on the Italian frontier. Already thousands of Italians have died and the death-roll may rise to unprecedented figures. Hundreds of thousands of Italian men, women and children, bombed out of their homes are living in the open in temperatures five to eight degrees below freezing point. They lack adequate medical equipment and proper foods. Over 32,000 cases arc reported in Milan alone. Hospitals everywhere are jammed with the most serious cases. The Germans are ruthlessly abandoning Italian civilians to their fate. Thousands of German soldiers arriving in Northtrn Italy are receiving priority treatment immediately they become victims. In England Influenza is seriously affecting war production, and the Minister for Health (Mr H. U. Willink) called for total mobilisation to fight the epidemic, says the “Daily Mail.” A circular calling for full use of borough and rural resources, circulated throughout Britain, suggests the formation of mutual help squads ready to nurse or shop for patients. Some centres have called on Red Cross workers and women’s organisations to provide nurses for homes where all inmates are ill. Influenza is also reported to be widespread in France, Belgium and Northern Italy.