NATURE OF THE DISEASE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15826, 26 July 1913, Page 9

NATURE OF THE DISEASE.

ANOTHER THEORY. ; (Per United Press Association.) AUCKLAND, July 25. It has been suggested that this present epidemic is akin to alastrim, the naino given by Jacobs, a well-known authority, • to a mild form of epidemic very similar ' to smallpox, but differing in important particulars. In the epidemic of alastrim. at Paulo the mortality was about £

r ■ nt. The disease is less dangerous in .dren than in adults. There is no secondary fever, pustulation is quicker, the fretid smell of smallpox is absent, and the cicatricial formation is wanting. Although vaccination is a prophylactic against alasirim, cases have been noted where vaccinated patients had been infected. Alastrim originated in Africa, Dr Maguire, officer-in-chaxge of the isolation hospital, having had his attention drawn to this theory, said the description of alastrim closely resembled the disease here. Alastrim appeared to be discrete smallpox, and was certainly an important feature in the low mortality and the immunity of children, combined with the mildness of the attack. The case 3 nnd-jr his notice in the isolation hospital differed in several important respects from smallpox. There had been no "pitting" in convalescents, and the disease was slow ( in the majority of cases. The characteris; j tic disturbance of smallpox were lacking

THE TRINIDAD DISEASE.

POINTS OF INTEREST.

ILLUMINATING FIGURES,

To labour the question of tho need for vaccination (says the Sydney Sun) seems excess of zeal till one looks at the wide reluctance in Sydney to undergo the process.

An epidemic which has been quoted by several authorities -as corresponding in typo and severity to the Sydney.outbreak occurred in Trinidad in the years 1902 to 1804.

"The chief point of interest," says the. medical annual, of this epidemic "lies 1 in the extreme mildness of the cases. Of tho 5154 persons attacked, only 28 died, a, mortality of 0.54 per cent. Of the 564 patients treated in tho isolation hospital, 13 died, a mortality of 2.3 per cent. Theso mortalities are very low, but it is to be remembered that the copulation is a fairly well-vaccinated one. For 10 yeaTS, ending in 1900, the average proportion of vaccinations to births was 83.1 per cent. The protective power of vaccination, however, docs not appear to have accounted altogether for the low mortality. Smallpox is i disease which varies much in virulence from time to time. For some years in :ertain parts of the United States smallpox )f a very mild type was present. .Welch md Schamberg state that among 138 mtients who had not been vaccinated there vere no deaths. The fatality of Trinidad's ! 61 nnvaccinated patients was only 2.8 per ent. The mildness of the epidemic led o much divergence of opinion as to the laiture of the disease. Some medical men. ook the_ disease to be chickenpox, others bought it was a disease which was neither mallpox nor chickenpox ('varioloid variclla'j; finally it was shown to be small)OX. t . . It is extremely doubtful

whether there is an epidemic infectious disease like smallpox and chickenpos, but yetjjufte distinct from them.

"TJio influence of vaccination was to be seen, even though the disease was of. a mild form, thus:— "Abortive: Vaccinated 20, nnvaccinated

"Mild Discrete: Vaccinated 58, imvaccinated 258.

"Severe Discrete: Vaccinated 23, unvaccinated 16.

"Confluent: Vaccinated 2, nnvaccinated 16.

"Hiemorrhagic: Vaccinated 0; unva& cinated 1.

"There were no deaths among tho patients who had been vaccinated, whereas there were 13 among those who had not."