Volunteers Help In ’Flu-Hit Hospital

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30975, 3 February 1966, Page 13

Volunteers Help In ’Flu-Hit Hospital

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright)

LONDON, Feb. 2.

Men and women are working as volunteer nurses at a hospital in Bradford, A orkshire, where nearly one in 10 of the staff has been hit by Britain’s influenza epidemic.

Other hospitals—including several in Glasgow—also have been hit by the outbreak. About 50,000 schoolchildren in Glasgow are ill with influenza and health officials have advised people with chest and heart conditions to stay at home.

So far there have been four deaths in Scotland associated with influenza. But the outbreak in Edinburgh was be-

ginning to decrease, officials said.

Health Ministry figures show that 58 people died from influenza in Britain during the week ended January 22—but this figure was described as “normal for this time of the year” by a Ministry spokesman.

Dundee and Bristol have been hard hit by the epidemic with a total of nearly 18,000 Schoolchildren affected.

Almost every sector of the community in many areas has been affected —from industry to football clubs. Claims for sickness benefits from the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance have more than doubled to over 9000 because of the epidemic, a spokesman said. The Ministry is finding it hard going—as many of their own staff are away ill with influenza.