SPANISH INFLUENZA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 118, 12 February 1919, Page 5

SPANISH INFLUENZA

ITS DEGREE OF VIRULENCEMASKS A PREVENTIVE AVhon the recent pandemic of influenza ewej/t the country and within the short <pace of a few weeks exacted so sweeping a toll of disability and dent!; it naturally ■aroused widespread scientific and popular interest, and the outbreak, coming at 60 crucial k time in the great world war, and characterised as it has been by the severity of the disease, its frequently rapid course and hijjh mortality called forth many questions in.the minds of the public. . , . Foremost among these questions is: "AVhut made this epidemic of grippe so deadly :" While scientists say that a complete and satisfactory answer cannot bo vouchsafed as yet, a partial explanation ia given in the "Scientific American" by Dr. AVade AV. Oliver, Professor of Bacteriology, Long Island College Hospital, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. "The -influenza bacillus, a tiny germ averaging about'l-25,000 inch in length, discovered in ISO 2 by Pfeili'er, gains ontrance to the throat of healthy individuals most often through the fine droplets expelled by an influenza patient during the eict of sneeziug, coughing, or | loud talking. These droplets aro given the name of 'infectious droplets' because they contain, especially in tho early f.tages of the disease, largo numbers of the germs of 'grippe.' These germs, expelled into tho oir, may bo breathed in by an individual in close proximity to the patient, and thus passed via tho aerial TOiite from one person's body to another's. Because air infection is probably the most common method by which influenza is spread, the use of masks, often of gauze..to protect the nose and throat of healtliy individuals is eeen to be baeed upon rational principles. "Considering germ diseases broadly, wu may look upon infection as a process in which ditosse-causing germs not onlj invude tho human body, but multiply and carry on their life proee&s within tho body, to the detriment of the latter, infection, then, ia the.product of two factors i (1) The virulent, or invasive powers, oi' power of the germ to grow in tho body and wreak injury., ■•-"'! Y-) l'ie r-= ;, - | of the individual, that is tho ability of the individual to prevent the germ trom getting a foothold within the- body. Accepting as our. basis of argument, then, tho.ground that infection is determined by the outcome of a battle waged between two- living opposing forces, the attacking germ and the invaded b.cdy, we find that there aro many factors, some relatively'well established and olhers but little-understood, whose sum total determines the fortunes of the battle., • "(t) Resistance of the. individual. "Different races, and even individuals, difter in their power, of resistance,to a given germ. Moreover, tho resistance to i disease of a given individual is apparently the result of. the harmonious adjustment of a number of delicate factors, certain of which exhibit natural fluctuation and other of which' may be modified' by relatively simple procedures. Huiijjcr,. fatigue, a sudden cliange in , the weather, may be sufficient to turn the scalo"nnd cause a- normally Vesistant*individual t-u become susceptible to an infection. "(2) A T irulence of the germ. . '" ".lust as the resistance or defendins powr-r of the body is not constant, but. is always subject to nutural or artificial change, so do we find that the virulence of bacteria, that is their- power of invasion nnd of injury to the body, varies. Not only do vu find certain kinds of (terms which uniformly are more virulent than others, but we know that there arcoften different strains, or rjces, of the same kinds of germs, which HifFer greatly ia their ability to' injure the body after they have gained entrance to it. Moreover, it has been determined that tho virulence of many germs can be increased

ior decreased (exalted or lowered). Most germs lose in virulence when grown outside of the body for a'long time. Conversely, many germs gain in virulence when passed successively through the body of o. susceptible animal. The streptococcus and pneumococcus, the li'enns which have been notad as being associated with the influenza bacillus, have been shown to gain in virulence when passed . successively through the bodies of a series of white mice, an animal very susceptible to tin: germs. ' "The bearing of the preceding upon a ■ possible explanation of the severity of the epidemic of influenza is as follows: ; "Remembering that any given infec- , tion is an interplay between body rc'sist- ' once and injury-wreaking powers of a ' given germ, we may oiler some such I hypothesis as this: The pandemic of ' 'grippe' originated probably in Spain, and thence spread rapidly over neatly all of : Europe, including the warring notions of > Kngland, Italy, Franca, and Germany, in which from 30 to dO per cent, of the people' ■ were attacked. "The congregation of large numbers of 3 individuals within camps, munition facf tories, etc., afforded the most ideal con- - ditious for the spro adof these germs. . During their passage through a large number of individuals . their virulence i may have become raised, and possibly . this increased virulence of the attacking - germs may ba the main reason for the ■ severity of tho symptoms as manifested - in tho'United State. A certain air of - probability seems to be lent to this by '■ the fact that the resistance of the indivii dual does no seem to be a dominant fac--3 tor with us, because Snanish influenza " 'seems impartially to attack the weak and i the strong." ■ ••