INFLUENZA MORTALITY IN AUSTRALIA
DEATHS IN TWO TEARS, 14,528.
Interesting information concerning the ( influcuza epidemic of ISIS-19 is contained ( in the Commonwealth Year Book, which j has just: been issued by the Statistician (Mr. G. H. Knibbs), says, the "'Argus. , Tho total number of deaths caused by . influenza during the period of the epi- , demic in Australia was 11,989, or 233 per 1(10,000 of population. ; Thcro were marked epidemics of influenza in IS9I, 1891-5, and 1899, but the recent visitation was much more severe than its predecessors. The annual dentin rates per million persons from influenza during tho period of fourteen years from 1880 to 1893, thirteen years from 1894 to 190G, and twelve years from 1907 to 1918, were 101, 202, and 98 respectively, while the rate for 1919 alono was 2331, or, 23.8 times that of the averago for the 1907-18 period. Tho association of pneumonia and heart diseaso with influenza wns conspicuous in tho epidemics of 1891 and 1919. and the deaths an recorded as due to influenza and pneumonic inlluenza show that on the whole these two causes are closclv related. The characteristics of the ago incidence of the' epidemic are sharply distinct from those of ordinary influenza. While in the mortality-from ordinary intluciiza it continually increases with age for lwth males and females after the nge of about 12V years is passed, in Wie pneumonic form it reaches a maximum— about G3oo—at the ago of 36.4 years for males and about 3700 at tho age of 32.G for females. The masculinity of death from influenza is also peculiar. _ If tho excess of males over females in 10,000 persons be ascertained, this number may lie termed the masculinity per 10,000. . Mr Knibbs presents statistics to show that for influenza tho masculinity (as defined) greatly increased in 19191 for broncho-pneumonia it distinctly increased over ii.s value for 1918, though it was less than for the period 1907 to 1917; for pneumonia itself it greatly diminished, while for heart diseaso it did not greatly chlmgc. The number of deaths attributable to 1 tiho epidemic of 1918-19 involves an analysis of the mortality from all diseases, and of the mortality from inlluenza in ■ normal circumstances, owing to tho sup- > position. that many persons who . died • from infiuonza- would have died if no 1 epidemic had occurred. Adjusting these : mortalWv figures, Mr. Knibbs shows that. there were 14.528 deaths during 1918-19 '(comprising 590 in 1918, and 13,933 in 1 1919) moro than would have normally f occurred. This number was the death ? tribute for Iho two years owing directly ' and indirectly to tho opidemic, on the r assumption that the increase in deaths' ' from pneumonia and heart (Disease wero • associated more or less directly with the { influenza mortality.
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Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 61, 6 December 1920, Page 4
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458INFLUENZA MORTALITY IN AUSTRALIA Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 61, 6 December 1920, Page 4
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