THE INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17576, 18 March 1919, Page 5

THE INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC.

MORIALiTY IN AUSTRALIA. ' Presp Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. MELBOURNE, March 17. . Two additional deaths from influenza are reported. SYDNEY, March 17. There were, three deaths from influenza duping tho week-end. EPIDEMIC COMMISSION. YESTERDAY'S PROCEEDINGS. (Pea Uhiteo Pbess Association.) "WELLINGTON, Maxell 17. Giving evidence before the Epidemic Commission Wday, Dr Barclay, medical superintendent at the Wellington Hospital, quoted statistics to show that there was no special susceptibility in the matter of sex, and that the majority of the patients attended to were between the ages of 18 and 40. An unduly high percentage of males between 20 and 40 were attacked. On thev subject of prophylaotio . inoculation Dr Barclay that all tho information available was vague. Nobody seemed to specially recommend it or to generally condemn it. There was a certain amount of risk after inoculation. Influenza in Wellington appeared to have been no respecter of persons. It did not eeero. to matter whether we lived , in slums or in the best surroundings. The only way in which such an epidemic could be coped with was by' a general public organisation. For over a yocr past influenza had been in New • Zealand,, but the more virulent type made its appearance with its complications in the early days of November. Referring to the possibility of a recrudescence, Dr Barclay emphasiced the need for more attention to be devoted to home nursing. Dr Lloyd Clay stated that influenza was characterised by a very low mortality in .tho drj; form. The complications it took, too, we're comparatiyely rare, and included bronchitis, pneumonia, and pericarditis. Of 55,000 people in the German army who were attacked during the pandemic of 1889, there wore only 60 deaths, which worked out at 0.1 per cent. There was considerable doubt as to whether or* not the recent disease was really influenza. With the exception '• of the septicemic plague of Hongkong, he had never seen anything so virulent as the_ recent epidemic, which came' with startling suddenness, and spread rapidly _ and widely. It attacked a huge proportion of the population, entering mansions as readily as hovels. The general impression of the disease was that it was not really influenza, but a very virulent form of another disease, which was, perhaps, not properly understood. His clinical experience led him to believe that streptococetis was the germ which caused most of the trouble, a germ capable of destroying the mucous membrane. The recent epidemic was greatly different from the previous pandemic, only resembling it in three points—the suddenness of the attach, the rapid spread of the disease, and the prostration of the patients. A remarkable feature was the serious blood change which took place in the majority of cases. Where death occurred the patient had all the appearance of general septicemia Patients began to turn blue in colour beiore they had pneumonia at all; while there were still good breath sounds in the irfk appeared snowing that the blood cells were so affected with toxins thaj; they were unable to take up oxygen from the air coming into the lungs . i>r Makgill gave additional evidence that influenza was a preventable diesase in that by extreme measures its spread could be stopped. In practice, however it was known that in no country had it been found possible to avoid pandemia, even in,Aus*r ia, " wnere every known measure within tho sphere of practical administration was taken. It was true that in Now South Wales the recent outbreak had been apparently very promptly checked, but the case was still scarcely parallel with that of New Zealand in October last. It had come upon Australia in tho summer, when _the people could be induced to live out of doers and the seasonal tendency to pneumonic infections was absent. In New Zealand the weather j was exceptionally favourable to catarrhal trouble. Australia had her troubles yet to face, including the effects of a winter epidemic. Also the authorities in New South Wales had the experience of other countries, including New Zealand, to guide them, and being forewarned were forearmed.