THE INFLUENZA WAVE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 266, 6 August 1919, Page 7

THE INFLUENZA WAVE

' DECLINE IN AUSTRALIA ' EXAMINED. : Melbourne, August 5. - Dr. Cumpston, Director of Quarantine, In a report on the influenza epviemic, states that the agencies which brought about the decline of Hie epidemic were not necessarily inoculation, inaa'r.tion, and isolation in hospital, but the moifcea intrinsic tendency of the disease towards a natural decline in virulence and infectivity. He claims that theiMiitimo quarantine was of the greatest value, but says the land quarantine was quite ineffective under the.system recently atA further report states that 55,000 soldiers have been or will be discharged from the Expeditionary Force in Australia, many of whom will still be infective.—Press Assn.

(Bee. August 5, 7.30 p.m.) Sydney, August 5, Mr. Penfold, the chief quarantine laboratory officer, reports, regarding the valuo of inoculation in the influenza campaign, that the use of vaccine was associated with a fall in the incidence and mortality of the disease, the ratio of deaths in inoculated and uninoculated groups being o.s 5 to 24. Some small part of tho improvement may havo been due to the fact that quick treatment was received by those' inoculated. Mr. Penfold eays' that inoculation should have been niorc widely used, and the doses should havo been larger. A repetition oHnoci&ition would certainly extend the period ,3i immunity.—Press Assn.