HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 25 October 1941, Page 4

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

TREATMENT OF COMMON COMPLAINTS (No. 15): Pneumonia It every person who is stricken 1 with pneumonia could get proper ! j medical treatment within the first * j 24 hours, the death rate from this [ i disease in New Zealand would fall I j to almost zero. At present it i ! ranks sixth as the cause of death. I Pneumonia is tragically swift in its attack. A person might be j walking blithely down the street ; early in the morning feeling fine. By j midnight he might be dead. Swift- j ness in attack must be met by speed in defence. The chief warning j signal is a sharp pain in the chest, ; usually accompanied by a headachy j and listless feeling. Rush the j ! patient to bed, and get a doctor j j without delay. The doctor has in his possession ; the means of stopping the attack. But he must know in time. Medical i skill has now a new wonder-work- | ing drug on its side. It is known ; ns sulphapyridine, and it is powerj ful enough to overwhelm the pneuI monia germs. Patients treated with ! this drug on the first day, almost j without exception recover. This ! has been shown here and in other parts of the world. Your doctor ! knows all about it, but he must be j summoned as soon as pneumonia is j suspected. Otherwise he. with nil • his skill, and the drug with all its i magic, will be of little use. Pneumonia frequently follows a j cold or a severe sore throat, a i complaint that is usually prevalent j in winter and early spring. The bodily resistance becomes lowered ! and the pneumococci are let loose in j the lungs. Very soon after the j chest pain is noticed the patient becomes very ill, and thou the grim contest starts between medical science on the one hand, and a deadly little germ on the other, a germ that is causing the lung tissues to flood with pus. If the germ wins. Ihe lungs eventually clog up, and the heart, valiantly pumping blood against this obstruction, finally has to give out. Pneumonia is highly infectious, and is no res pec tor of age. Most people carry the germ in their j throats all the time, and if they ] are healthy it is harmless. Keep . it harmless. Look after yourself | ; when there are colds and chills j about. (Jut this out, you may need t . j