INFLUENZA

Southland Times, Issue 19896, 15 June 1926, Page 8

INFLUENZA

NEED FOR CAUTIQN INVERCARGILL SO FAR IMMUNE MEDICAL MEN INTERVIEWED. A telegram was received yesterday from Wellington stating that a very unpleasant form of influenza had developed in that centre. In view of this information a Times reporter yesterday sought the opinions of several doctors as to the possibility of it reaching Invercargill. The first doctor approached said it was hard to express an opinion at the present time. ‘We have the experience of the 1918 epidemic,” he said, “but until something definite comes over the wires nothing can he said. There are always a good number of colds about at this time of the year, but nothing serious. I have heard privately that there is a good deal of pneumonia in Auckland.” A second doctor stated that the report from Wellington was vague, no definite information as to deaths being given. It would be quite easy for the influenza germs to reach Invercargill. The deaths reported from Sydney did not indicate that the epidemic was serious over there. “I do not think there is much in it/’ said another medical man, “there are a certain number of influenza cases every year about this time. At present it is best to pay no attention. We will know all about it within the next few weeks.” The fourth doctor expressed his opinion in a few words. “There is every likelihood of the epidemic, if it is an epidemic, coming to this town,” he said. “There is no way of stopping it.” INFLUENZA AND PNEUMONLA SEVERE EPIDEMIC IMPROBABLE. PRECAUTIONS AGAINST ORDINARY INFLUENZA. Influenza was prevalent in England and Western Europe and in North America last winter, not with anything like the severity of the pandemic of 1918-19, but sufficient to take toll of many old and very young persons. The last epidemic of this disease in New Zealand was in 1920, in which year 480 deaths occurred from influenza and 528 from pneumonia. The South Island was most affected and the victims were principally the very old and the very young. Its bacteriology, its real and positive causative factors, have not yet been conclusively laid down. Whether there is only one influenza of varying degree of intensity and of rapidity of extension in a community or several varieties so distinct as almost to deserve to be classed as separate diseases, is a question yet to be adequately settled by medical authority. THE PANDEMIC OF 1918. Certainly the calamity of its occurrence in the pandemic of 1918—19, which caused 6716 deaths in New Zealand, and it is estimated twenty million throughout the world (the worst catastrophe of the sort that has visited the human race since the Black Death of the Middle Ages), gave ample evidence of the malignity of some disease, thenßenown as influenza, whether it was a specific and new one or one merely of accentuated virulence upon occasion. During the Great War preceding that pandemic millions of human beings had their environment suddenly and completely changed and were crowded together in troopships, hutments, and dugouts. Infectious disease moreover is Nature’s radical deterrent to overcrowding; witness the gaol fever of olden days, the high infectious disease death rates of crowded cities, particularly the baneful effects of overcrowding of persons in living-rooms, and on the other hand, New Zealand’s low mortality from infectious disease. Rapid passage through susceptible animals exalte the virulence of many germs. Whether or not the influenza of 1918 was a new disease it certainly in most parts of the world was greeted like one and behaved like one. Clinically it differed from our ordinary influenza. Its hemorrhages, the heliotrope face, its greater duration, and the fact that its mortality was greatest in the middleaged and robust, whereas the disease we normally know as influenza kills mostly the old and the very young, are examples of difference. In many parts of the world the time of its importation could be told to a day. The s.s. Demerar a from Lisbon by way of Africa brought it to Rio de Janeiro on September 17 and to Buenos Aires on September 25. A steamer from Auckland is said to have introduced it into Western Samoa on November 7. It was brought to Tahiti on November 16 on the steamship Navua from San Francisco; and its introduction into certain Army camps was known to the day and hour. ORDINARY ENDEMIC INFLUENZA. Of influenza generally, it may be said, almost invariably its first notable advent in any community is in some city or town of measurable size. Such an observation gives the best clue to its method of distribution. Of all infectious diseases it is essentially the one of crowded and large and indoor gatherings. It is spread from person to person and mouth spray and finger to mouth infection are regarded as the most likely means of spread. PRECAUTIONS. If one is unlucky or careless enough to contract influenza he is not to suppose he can fight the thing off by pursuing his ordinary course of life. Without doubt the disease may run its course without much untoward result except a lengthening of it by such procedure, but such action multiplies the chances of his being assailed by pneumonia. He is to go to bed, and if the mere bed threatens to prove ineffective, call the medical man. If all did this, indoor crowds would lose their dangers, but in the absence of this ideal condition it is wise during epidemic periods to eschew large and crowded indoor assemblies. PNEUMONIA. Pneumonia is an inflammation of the lungs caused by germs in great variety. It may complicate influenza, measles, and other infectious diseases, and should always be isolated and treated as conveyable to others. The coughing and sneezing of the patient are things to be avoided. Sputum and sputum rags should be conveyed by the patient into vessels containing disinfectant such as carbolic 1 part in 20 of water, and acute pneumonia generally should be treated as infectious illness. Bacteriological literature abounds with descriptions of many germs regarded as causes of influenza, but responsible State Ministries of Health admit that its bacteriology is still uncertain. Without another world war, it is unlikely that New Zealand will again experience the catastrophe of 1918; but, judging from experience of the past, there may be occasional rirtitations of severe influenze of the ordinary type. Besides the aforementioned precautions requisite for epidemic periods, an open-air life, open windows, good food, and cleanliness, all easily attainable in New Zealand, constitute at present the best preventive of this disease. Department of Health, Wellington, June, 1926.