INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC

Otago Witness, Issue 3382, 8 January 1919, Page 21

INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC

LONDON, December 30. The influenza epidemic is steadily waning. The week's deaths in London were I§4, as compared with 942 a month ago. The total deaths in the United Kingdom are 110,000. December 31. The influenza epidemic has rapidly declined recently. There were approximately 90,000 deaths in the United Kingdom for 12 weeks; also 20,000 deaths from pneumonia following influenza. \ DEATHS IN EGYPT. CAIRO, January 3. The deaths from -influenza totalled 40,000. SUCCESS OF INOCULATION. SYDNEY, December 31. Evidence is pouring in from doctors to the efficiency of influenza inoculation for other diseases of chronic types, such as rheumatism, neuritis, sclerosis, catarrh, neuralgia, and asthma. January 5.

The Influenza position has so far improved that the authorities hop© that Australia very shortly will be declared free. \ A considerable number of stranded New .Zealanders sailed by the Port Lyttelton and Durham. Twelve of those booked by the Durham failed to join. OTAGO COUNTRY REPORTS. The Clerk of the Otago Heads Road Board reports that the costs incurred in connection with the influenza epidemic were nil. Everyone who had the influenza paid his own costs, and all the cases had recovered. Cr W. H. Hitchon, on behalf of the town clf.rk, Milton, reports that the temporary hospital in St. John's Schoolroom has been closed as from last Friday, the last patient having been sent homoi The total period for which the hospitals wore open was approximately one month. The Secretary of the Owaka Hospital reports that the hospital was closed on December ?2, and all convalescents were discharged on December 24. DEATHS IN SOUTHLAND. INVERCARGILL, January 1. # The deaths from the influenza epidemic in the Wallace and Southland districts totalled 352. GOOD REPORT FROM AUCKLAND. AUCKLAND, December 31. Fresh cases of influenza have not been reported for days, and the last temporary hospital at Grey Lynri was closed to-day. At Motuihi Island "four patients were discharged yesterday, leaving only two, whose stay should bo confined to a very short period. , """ AUCKLAND STATISTICS. AUCKLAND, January 1. The outstanding features of the vital statistics for the City of Auckland for the last year are the great increase 'in the number of deaths, and the falling off in the number,-of births as compared with the previous year. A substantial decrease in the number of marriages is also recorded. The deaths last year totalled 2386 as against 1428 in 1917 an increase of 958. The extent to which the epidemic was responsible for this is plainly shown in the figures for November and December, the deaths in those unonths numbering 964 and 239, as compared with 118, and 137 in t ! le P revioll3 year. The decrease in births is 303, the numbers being 2875 for 1918, and 3178 for 1917. Last year's marriages totalled 1045, a decrease of 90, compared with 1917, that, year's figures being 1135. NEW PLYMOUTH STATISTICS. NEW PLYMOUTH, January 3._ The vital statistics show 115 deaths in November and December, against 34 for the previous year, indicating that about 80 were due to the influenza epidemio. Many, hov>ever, were brought from outside the registration districts for treatment at the local' hospital. SOUTH SEA ISLANDS. GENERAL IMPROVEMENT. WELLINGTON, December 31. A message received to-day by the Minister of Health from the Chief Medical Officer at Suva states that the influenza, trouble has eased rapidly at Suva, Levuka, and Lautoka. There have been no fresh cases at Suva for two days, at Levuka for three days, and at Lautoka for l 0 days. The health conditions of the Islands generally have unproved. SUVA, January 2. At Tonga the influenza epidemio has been practically stamped out. The mortality is estimated at 8 per cent, of the population. At Haapai there were about 400 deaths, and at Vavau over 400. —A. and N.Z. Cable. January 2. It is estimated that the influenza mortality in Fiji is 8000, and in Suva and district 469—A. and N.Z. Cable. CARE OF THE ORPHANS. The following is a cony of a telegram re-ceived-by the Otago Hospital and Charitable Aid Board from the Hon. G. W. Russell, Minister of Public Health: " I have to inform you as follows: —First, the care of the children left orphans through tlio epidemic will bo undertaken by the Hon. the Minister of Education, to whom all communications regarding them should bo addressed; Hospital Boards arc requested to forward through the Minister of Public Health ail information in their possession regarding orphan cases m order to assist the Education Department. Second, the Health Department will deal with all cases of widows and widowers loi'fc with children through the epidemio. The assistance of Hospital Boards in this matter-is invoked in obtaining lists of cases,'' ascertaining their merits, and granting temporary assistance on the following l lines—namely : —Widows i!i necessitous ciicumstauces are to -bo granted 10s 6d per week for each child under the ago of 16, for boys under 18, and for girls provided they are not in employment. For widowers, it is suggested that they be assisted by such sum weekly as will provide female assistance in the home according to the number of the family, not exceeding 25s weekly. Each caso to bo considered on jfes merits. Quarterly reports to bo furnished to the department. Public Health

Department will l'ofund to boards all advances made under this schomo I look confidently to the boards and their officer* to administer the proposals heroin outhn«d generously and sympathetically." A TERRIBLE ACCOUNT. RELIEF FROM AUSTRALIA. (Faou Odb Own Correspondent J SYDNEY, December 19. The news from the various Paciflo Island groups is meagre and patchy, but it seems to be beyond doubt that terrible and alarming conditions prevail in the Fiji Islands, the Samoan Islands, the Friendly Islands (Tonga), and in the Society,lslands (Tahiti), owing to the influenza epidemic. From certain groups which seem to be in the direofc lino of infection—the Cook Islands, for instance^ —there is no news. Such information as has been received from the other near island groups—New Caledonia, Loyalty Islands, New Hebrides, Solomons, etc.—indicates that the disease has not yet reached there. The unhappy natives from the_ affected groups are literally dying like flies, The large party of Australian doctors and orderlies which was rushed off on the warship Encounter in response to an appeal from New Zealand for help in Samoa has visited other islands as well. The-ship called, en route to Samoa, at Tonga, and found conditions there appalling. She was at Nukualofa on December 5 ; and no less than 10 per cent, of the natives on Tongatabu had died. The epidemic was subsiding there, but was believed to bo raging in the other units of the group. There 'was a doctor at Vavau, but no skilled" person on Haapai. The ship landed a medical officer and six orderlies, and passed on. The Encounter found that the deaths totalled many thousands at both the Samoan Islands of Upolu and Savaii, and parties were landed there, while two medical officers, a lieutenant and six orderlies wero landed at Suva, where conditions were' rapidly becoming worse. Despatches from Suva show that practically no effort was made to keep the epidemic out of Fiji, although ample warning was -given, and 10 days ago, although it seemed to be held in Suva itself, it was making alarming progress among the Fijians and Indians in the various settlements. The Indian communities are fighting it intelligently, but the Fijians refuse to make an effort, and lie down before it" and let it take them. Up to December 10 there had been 3000 cases and 300 deaths in Suva alone—mostly natives. The white people had applied themselves very devotedly to nursing the stricken natives, 'with the result that they overtook the disoas© i in „Suva, but some of them lost their lives in this way.

One estimate places the deaths in Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji thus far at about 15.000.

THE OUTBREAK IN SOUTH AFRICA. The following extract from a letter received by Mr C. R. Chapman, of this city, from a resident magistrate in the town of Alexandria, not far from Port Elizabeth, South Africa, dated the Ist November, has been placed at our disposal : "I must write and tell you of the terrible time we've had and arc still having here and throughout the district owing to the epidemic of so-called Spanish influenza. _ It has swept through this little dorpie, leaving not. a house that I know of unvisited, and there have been v many deaths both among the Europeans and coloured. Our ono doctor, the only one in the whole district, has collapsed through overwork and) anxiety. I had a slight attack, which kept 4 m© in the house for a week. My .clerk is down with it, and the office messenger was laid up for 14 days. The disease has played, and still is playing, havoc among the coloured peoples and natives. Scores of them have died owing chiefly to their filthy habits and herding together at night in their huts. They cannot be made to understand the efficacy of j fresh air and even rudimentary rules of cleanliness. The consequence is when once they contract the disease they stand very little chanco of recovery. It is not only this insignificant corner of the Union which is affected, but as perhaps your papers ha%'e reported, the whole country —Capetown, Port Elizabeth, and all the large towns —have paid a heavy price in mortality, and the end is not yet. We were taken quite unawares, and it was not for quite a week after the outbreak that any" effectual means were obtainable to counteract the scourge. I said it is socalled Spanish influenza, but_ it is without doubt the worst _ form of influenza ever known, and certain medical men hold the opinion that it is more a form of pneumonic pjague,. very few people recovering when the disease attacks the lungs. I quite expected an attack, and therefore took the precaution of being inoculated; as soon as Ave could get a supply of vaccine, and think it was that that gave me the slight attack. I have been done again, and hope that I shall get along all right now, as I've undertaken the contract of the systematic inoculation of the whole district. It is only by such means that we can hope to combat and confrol the spread of the disease, there being no doubt that_ inoculation, as vaccination for small pox, is a very great assistance in arresting and minimising the virulence of the scourge.

A Taihape correspondent writes: "Among the noble women who have helped to nurse the epidemic cases are two well-known and highly respected Otago women—Mrs Drummond, whose husband was in the employ of the Invercargill Corporation when the tramcars first started, and Mrs Jas. W. Neill, daughter of the late Mr R. Wallace Each, in their respective districts, Ohuta and Winiata, worked night and day to relieve the sufferers for days unaided until help could be procured, going from house to house with tireless energy. Such bravery is surely equal to that of the soldiers who face death m the trenches, especially when clone for the sake of humanity and without hope of fee or reward."