MORE ABOUT ALCOHOL AND THE REGENT EPIDEMIC

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 72, 26 March 1919, Page 3

MORE ABOUT ALCOHOL AND THE REGENT EPIDEMIC

IMPORTANT BY DR. PLATTS-MILLS. Giving evidence before the Influenza .Epidemic Commission in Wellington,; Dr. Elizabeth Platts-Mills made the’’following remarks with reference to the • utility of alcohol t—“lh Karori, ‘ Wfibjiv she had worked through the epidleihife’', patients had done well; and the'’(treat-: ,ment had been without alcohol. Ih only two cases had it been used, and in only one of them had the patient recovered. In her opinion the lavish use of alcohol in the epidemic was distinctly harmful. It was used by many as a panic remedy, and it was given to patients who had no symptoms calling ,for stimulants, but rather with symptoms indicating that stimulants would do harm. In her experience no ‘bad insults had followed the removal df alcohol. Certainly, heavy drinkers died of the*disease, and possibly the’heavier .mortality among males was due to the fact that males used alcohol more freely than women as a beverage, ~ Her opinion was that patients lived often not because of alcohol, but in spite of it. although she could not deny that it was sometimes useful. Certainly;the free use of alcohol, tended to create panic. Men who were already ih hi high fever from influenza, and who ought to have beep in bed, sometimes could not be induced to go to bed because they were intoxicated. In this way alcohol made difficulties for those fighting the epidemic.”*