INFLUENZA

Wanganui Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15617, 27 September 1918, Page 7

INFLUENZA

CHRISTCHURCH DOCTOR’S VIEWS. A leading Christchurch medical man, interviewed on the subject, supplied some interesting information as to influenza. After referring to previous epidemics, he said that the present epidemic appeared to be marked by a great prevalence of pneumonia and a bad form of bronchitis complicating the disease proper. The disease appeared to be of a more virulent type than had hitherto been known. From what ha could gather from English medical journals, the comparatively low vitality of people on short food rations had allowed the influenza to take a more severe form, and had made the victims of the disease specially liable to complications. The severity of the troopship epidemic might be traced to imperfect ventilation, and to the fact that isolation of the patients would be a difficult matter. ' “It is, so far, quite questionable whether this is one of the pandemic visits of the disease,” concluded the speaker. “Time only will tell. At present all that can be said is that the epidemic is of a severe nature, acting on a people whose vitality is lowered, and carrying with it a very large proportion of respiratory diseases which cause the high deathrate. Should New Zealand be visited by the disease, it may be of value to the public to know that the chief prophylactic treatment consists in disinfecting the nasal passages and the throat. This had been a systematic part of the treatment of soldiers on troopships, but the men usually treat the performance as a bore or a joke, and cannot be persuaded to look upon it as a serious and necessary precaution.”