INFLUENZA OUTBREAK

Wairarapa Age, 19 November 1919, Page 5

INFLUENZA OUTBREAK

THE GASTRIC TYPE/

WELLINGTON, Last Night. During the week, ending November 17, thirty-one cases of influenza were reported in "the Wellington Health District.. • ; . Discussing -the- position, with a reporter, Dr. Watt, District Health Officer, pointed to the fact that, out of the. notified, only three ' were pneumonic. This was nothing remarkable in a health district the size» of Wellington. . Asked if case's of gastric influenza were prevalent in the district, Dr. Watt replied that only a very few had' been reported. It was not the type o,f disease that had been so disastrous last November.] He said the gastric form' is one of the recognised types of influenza, but it is n Qt a severe manifestation of the disease. During the big epidemic last year there was comparatively little gastric influenza. It had been known in past opidcmics, but there was nothing essentially dangerous about it.. The dangerous type, as we knew it, was the pneumonic type of last year. MI still advise," said the doctor, "that . the utmost precautions be taken, though, to prevent any spread of the disease. It is absolutely ossential that the advice regarding precautions- that have been given from time to time should be followed. Influenza is a notifiable disease, and the obligation is on the medical attendant, or on the householder in the absence of a medical attendant, to report all cases."

Dr. Watt added that there were no influenza, and, on the evidence before it, tho Department did not anticipate a recrudescence of the outbreak of last year.