INFLUENZA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19863, 4 February 1920, Page 3

INFLUENZA.

SCHOOLS TO BE CLOSED. PRECAUTIONARY MEASURE. Dr T. J. Hughes, District Health Offleer, has received instructions to close all schools in the Canterbury Health DistrictDr Hughes stated that, although instructions have been issued by the Department to close the schools, the step has been taken as a precautionary .measure, and people should not be greatly alarmed. For the- term comprising Saturday, afternoon. Sunday and Monday, nine cases of influenza were notified in the Christchurch Health District, which includes the whole of Canterbury and the West Coast, and eight of the cases were in North Canterbury and one at Ashburton. • Yesterday fifteen cases were reported, fourteen of them in North Canterbury and one in South Capterbury. All are mild. CHRISTCHURCH COMMITTEE PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES DISCUSSED. BLOCK SYSTEM ADOPTED. The Christchurch Influenza Colnmittoe met .yesterday afternoon; present— The Mayor (Dr Thacker, M.P.), Messrs M. J. Gresson, A. F. Wright, C. W. Hervey, J, A. Flesher and W. S. Wharton, Dr Guthrie. Dr Hughes (Public Health Department), Mrs Neville and Mrs Whitaker. Mr Wharton read a -report made by the Hospital Board’s sanitary inspector following a visit to a number of city and suburban schools. The inspector stated that where the school was of recent construction, he had found the ventilation good. In a number of buildings of the older schools, however, the means of ventilation were not good, tho chief Reasons being (1) badly placed windows, had to be kept shut on account of draughts, (2) windows which could not be Qpened,- and (3) windows which, though open, wore practically useless for ventilation as the blinds had to be kept down to exclude the sum The newer schools were much more intelligently and liberally fitted with' Tobins’ tubes, outlet shafts and cowls. From observations made and information gathered, however, it would ap- 1 pear that during periods of unfavourable weather the conditions ox a large number of the class rooms would be decidedly unhealthy, for the reason that a number of the windows have to be kept shut. With regard to the general cleanliness of the schools, ■ they had, been found in good condition. This was to a certain extent due to tho fact that they had fust re-opened after their annual holidays, during which period the schools were scrubbed out. .Quite a lot of the daily cleaning consisted of dry .sweeping and dusting of the class rooms, and this not too thoroughly done on.account of the double desks and the number of rooms. In one school the caretaker had about twenty-six class rooms to attend to. It would be much more satisfactory and sanitary to do the work by means of vacuum cleaning. For this purpose it would be possible by means of electric power to fit each school With a small motor and,suction pump, and with the installation of the necessary piping the whole of the dust, etc., iu the class rooms could he effectively dealt with. As a result of inquiries as to school attendance, it appeared that there were a number of children not attending owing to the fact. that some member of the family was suffering from influenza. As the board had received no notification of these cases, the inspector assumed that no medical advice had beery called in by the householder. ' ■ j Mr Hervey said that overcrowding iu schools was a serious matter, and ho thought the cominittee should take action. In several parts of Christchurch the children were huddled together, even on hot days, and if con-ditions-could bo improved by a communication to the. Education Board, they should adopt that course. It was decided to send a copy of the inspector’s report to headmasters and chairmen of school committees, as’ veil , as to tho Education Board. It was reported that Messrs Giessen and Wright had consulted with Dr Stanley Foster and Dr A- B O’Brien, as representatives of the British Medical Association, with reference to medical services in case of an cutbrea.X. As a result it had generally been agreed upon that Christchurch should he divided into blocks under the control or care of different doctors, hut that ' wherever possible members of lodges should always call iu their lodge doctor. Mr Gresson said that, in the event of any outbreak, Christchurch would be iu a far better position than in 1918, as quite a number of doctors had returned from the war. There would bo the lodge doctors, the block doctors, and general practitioners. Where a ■ lodgd doctor could not attend, the block doctor would be available. Dr Guthrie said that up to a certain extent that system would be all right, but, of course, if an epidemic got past a certain stage, the block system would have to become absolute. Dr Hughes said that in the last epidemic there had been overlapping and ,an endeavour should be made to avoid that in future. The, secretary said that at present there w-ere more nursing sisters available in Christchurch, than there had been before. Ihe report, was adopted. Mr Gresson said that the present system of notification to the Public Health pcpaitinont afforded the only means of knowing the number of cases in the district and he urged the committee to consider whether'new measures should not be adopted. Ho had ascertained ; that doctors were not notifying ordinary cases to the Public Health Department. That' meant that the whole system of. notification had broken down. .- n outbreak ofrinfluonza Had occurred at the Harewood Road orphanage and though onto boy had died after removal to the hospital, the cases had been regaiclcd as -mjld. and the Department was not notified for some considerable. imp, Doctors and householders should be reminded that notification was required by .statute: Unless that were clone, they would lose touch with the intlueuza epidemic as it affected the distiict. though tlie situation at present was not in the least serious, statistics were absolutely necessayy. Dr Hughes said that las far as the Department could see, there, was no v.ause for alarm at the present time, [t was doubtful whether complete noth lication of all mild eases would do much good. Mne bad been reported on Monday and fourteen that clay, but, during Januaiy, lucre had been fewer pneumonic eases than in December, Tho schools were being closed as from Wednesday. That was. being done as a precautionary measure. Dr Guthrie, said that people would Have to make up their minds to put up "itlt a certain amount of inconvenience. 1 Should an outbreak occur, there would have, to be strict isolation. Mrs Whitaker said that the whole staff had been affected at Harewood Road, and isolation had had to be ignored. " Dr Hughes said that instructions were being issued to picture shows not to admit children of school age. It would be useless to close the schools and not take further precautions. A letter from Mr C. J. Trelea’-en, secretary of the Sc John Ambulance Brigade, gave particulars in regard to detail arrangements, and said that tho

nursing sisters and transport workers were ready to come out at a moment’s notice. Mrs Neville (representing Nurse Ala tide’s committee) said that she knew of twenty women willing to act. They had been through the last epidemic. Mrs Whitaker said that the St John Ambulance Brigade would also he able to provide a number of trained .women. It was hoped that the nursing sisters would be able to devote their time to the depots. The next meeting will be held on Alonday, February 16, at 4 p.m., and earlier if necessary. ADVICE TO THE PUBLIC. PRECAUTIONS THAT SHOULD BE ADOPTED. HEALTH OFFICER’S STATEMENT. [Per Press Association.] WELLINGTON, February 3. Influenza, in a mild form has become prevalent throughout the country, and while there is no .cause for alarm it ; would appear that the public would be well advised to take common sense preI cautions- That, at any rate, was the opinion expressed bv the. Acting-Chief Health Officer (Dr R. H. Alakgill) today. “The return of influenza notifications throughout the Dominion for the week ended February 2,” said Dr Makgill. “shows that.there has been a considerable increase over the preceding weeks. For the week ended January 12 there were 138 cases reported in New Zealand, for the week ended January 19. there were 273 cases, for the week' ended January 20 the number was 352 cases, and for the week ended February 2, there were 792 cases. However, it is satisfactory to find that the proportion of pneumonic or otherwise severe cases has not increased in proportion. It may be mentioned that cases of plain, pneumonia notified in the weeks under review were 46, 27, 33 and 24 respectively, which is a pretty fair indication ot the tendency at present for pulmonary infection of that kind. So long as complicated cases and cases of and out pneumonic type keep low like this there is no cause for. apprehension. People, no doubt, are anxious as to the number of deaths that have occurred Tne following are the deaths from influenza and pneumonia for the past two months:— . . Week ending _ From From _ , influenza, pneumonia. December 8 . . ,5 q December 15 . . 2 7 December 22 . . 4 q December 29 . ,5 0 January 5 ■ , *,O 2 January 12 . , l q January 19 . , 3 q January 26 . .4 q “ It will be seen that the deaths were fewer m the mouth just closed than in the preceding month. During 'December there was an epidemic in the Waikato, the figures going to as high as Ho lor the week ended December 22. It secins to.be diminishing there now, on 1 ' mi l we °k ie notifications fell to 29. these facts are of interest, because the outbreak in the "Waikato seems to n en ie fi rs t definite recurrence of influenza to any great extent, and it is noticeable that it occurred in an inland town and not a port Tho heaviest incidence during the past week has been iu Wellington, where 240 cases were reported, and in Nelson where there were 155 cases, inis latter figure, however, includes some cases from the previous week. In G;instcliurch and Otago districts the figurestwere 43 and 72 respectively, ibis shows a considerable increase in Gtago as compared with 11 and 7 cases .for the two previous weeks. Auckland’s total for tlie past week was 166. “ The influence of warm weather, fortunately, is assisting to keep down pulmonary complications. Wo see in this the value of tlie open air life, and for that reason the opening of> schools has been postponed, so that the children may have the advantage of being out of cioors as much as possible. Had the schoo s been open we would not have considered the present position sufficiently serious to have warranted us m closing them clown. It is. of course, a fact that children while they are avoiding possible clangers of the schools are in some cases going to pictures and in other ways exposing themselves to the chance of infection. We do not consider the position sorioijs enough to warrant us in closing down picture theatres. Jf we did that we could not logically allow other public gatherings, such as occur at auction sales, rare meetings, churches and in hotel, bars. ■ If the position should warrant such action in the future wo certainly shall take it, but such a step is not needed at present. We think, however, that tor their own s.akes. as ’ well as tho sakes of children, places of amusement would be wise to exclude children, under til teen years of age. If they will not 1 do it themselves it may happen wo shall 1 have to do it compulsorily, and if it is done by us at all it will apply to the public generally, ami not only to children, Aleauwhile children who are at the seaside should be kept there. Generally They ‘should bo kept out of town as far as possible. Persons who are nervous about infection should avoid crowded places, such as trams, trains and theatres. “ AVe do not intend, however, even should the disease become more severe, to adopt the mask, which was of very dubious value, nor is there any intention, even should conditions become worse, to resume the use of public inhalation chambers. These chambers are only of value where they can be thoroughly controlled, if they create crowding, or are used irregularly, they I are of no use whatever. It is possible, though, to use them with good effect in institutions where persons can he ■sent under treatment in small groups regularly, and bo sure of treatment twice daily, otherwise it is best to let the inhalation chamber alone. A much better protection and one available to everyone it) to wash out tho nose and throat twice daily .with warm salt s.olution, about a tca%ioonfu] of salt to a pint of. warm water, also to sniff some menthol and vaseline after using Hie other solution is a sound protection. Vaccination has produced smewhat contradictory results, and opinion of experience in the array seems to have A: ' npi- vn'U"-,-, 4i,„

of infections, but that it did reduce the tendency to develop complications. Our present typo of infection is fairly free from complications if reasonable precautions are taken by the patient, so wo do not advocate general vaccination, the more so as the effect of it does not last long. We consider it better to await the chanco that in the colder months to come a more severe type of infection may develop. However, we are distributing vaccine to hospital boards so that any medical practitioner may secure a free supply and administer it to those of his patients who wish it. In the case of waterside workers and sailors, who are more likely to he exposed to severe infection, we think that vaccination should be adopted now, and so*are arranging for the opening at tho mam centres of clinics at which any watcrsider or sailor may receive free treatment. Influenza is a disease the spread of which is beyond departmental effort, its spread is so rapid and insidious. It is universally agreed by authorities that there are no measures which will prevent its spread throughout the couutry once it starts. The most effective measures rest chiefly with the public themselves. They can by the use of a little common sense minimise both the spread of infection and the severity of the disease if they arc attacked. One of the wisest stops to tako is to avoid unnecessary crowds and ensure adequate ventilation and cleanliness in all homes. If any person is infected he should immediately go-to bed, for in this way he not only minimises his own risk of developing pneumonia and other complications, but also does awav with the danger of being the means of infecting others.” Di Alakgill summed up the present position in the following words: “Had the present condition arisen two years ago, very little notice would have been taken of it. -Fteures would not have been published “ and most people would scarcely have been aware of the visitation. However, the experience of 1918 showed us what n treacherous disease influenza is, and we cannot ignore it even in its present form, therefore we are ready for it.” CASES ON THE BREMEN. By Telegraph— Press Association—Copyright Australian and 27. Z. Cable Association. SYDNEY, February 3. • There are seven further cases of influenza' amongst the _ crew of the Bremen. None are serious.