INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 November 1918, Page 3

INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC.

News was received to-day of the death of Mrs Wilson, (nee Miss Margaret Stephens of Rimu), wife of Mr. Wilson, license of the Metropolitan Hotel, Wanganui, from the effects of the prevailing epidemic. The deceased. Who was about 24 years of ago was married only a few months ago. Mr Will. Stephens, bailiff, at the S.M. Court Hokitika is a brother.

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AT GREYMOUTH

GREYMOUTH, This Day

The report regarding influenza is not so satisfactory. All the hospitals are full and a number of patients are await ing admission. The necessity of a convalescent home is apparent and arrangements are in had to secure suitable buildings. > , There have been 42 deaths in Grey district since the epidemic commenced. Several patients had severe relapses, through going out too soon.

AT ASHBURTON. ASHBURTON, This Day

Since Nov. 9th ,the deaths registered in Ashburton district office total 40, chiefly the results of epidemic, the majority being in the country. The matron and eight nurses of the County Hospital are down. Temporary hospitals were opened at Ashburton technical school and Met liven Hotel. About 30 are in the latter, where there was the birth of a hoy last night. An energetic hand of volunteers are working and the epidemic is cheeked.

DUNEDIN IMPROVING. DUNEDIN, This Day

Notifications to-dav in Otago. Southland total 124, many, however, belonging to the previous day. Dunedin Hospital cases of a serious nature were, reduced by 21. The bureau calls arc slackening and_ the medical superintendent says the worst is past..

IN WANGANUI. WANGANUI, This Day.

Appearances point that the epidemic is well in hand in town. A number of eases are reported, showing a considerable decrease. The situation in regard to the Maoris in the country is reported as serious.

ONLY ONE DEATH. AUCKLAND, This Day. There was only one death since midnight in all the ciity and suburban Hospital.

PATIENT TO PATIENT ONLY Lieutenant-Colonel, Makgill, ActingDistrict Health Officer, at Wellington, made an interesting statement in reference to the danger of infection from those nursing influenza patients.

He said that some people seemed scared that contact with attendants from the hospitals would cause infec-t.;-n. As a matter of fact, he pointed out, there is no clinical evidence that the disease is carried by a third person. All agree that- the transmission of the infection is directly from one patient to an-ther. The organisms carrying the disease die very rapidly, and those working in laboratories experience the greatest difficulty in obtaining live cultures. Such difficulty is due to the rapidity with which the organisms die. This fact - easily explains that the organisms that lodge in clothes die so quickly that the clothes of those in contact with patients carry no disease.

A patient in the early stages by coughing and laughing may scatter organisms in an area up to 6ft. Beyond that there is little harm.

Dr Makgill expressed a great desire that the public should be emphatically notified that there is little danger of infection through contact with those handling patients. That fact could not be too well and widely known when there was a slight tendency towaru* panic.

lISE RESPIRATORS

VOLUNTARY HELPERS SHOULD DO SO.

Reyn raters are now being used hv many voluntary workers in infected premises, and it is a wise, indeed a necessary precaution which should be neglected by none concerned, if they wish to preserve their health. Ihe simplest form of respirator is a folded handkerchief ailcl a pad of cotton wool with a little eucalyptus on it. The pad should be placed over the mouth and nostrils j and held there by tying the handkerchief round the head. One can work comfortably for an hour or so in such a respirator.

EPIDEMIC LESSONS

(N.Z. Times.) This epidemic affords a number of object lessons, which the people ol the Dominion and their rulers, both national and local, would do well to take to heart. One lesson he has learned from it, stated the Minister for Public Health, “ is that our education system requires to be extended in its direct value to the people bv .training our boys and girls so that they may.be able to take temperatures and lend other aid in cases of this kind whenthe necessity becomes so great - ’: and wo ate glad to note that the Minister for Education, the Hon. J. A. Hanan, is fully alive to this aspect of the matter. But even more important lessons enforced by the epidemic are: (1) The urgent need for .effective measures to prevent .the intercolonial and overseas vessels which trade to our ports from conveying infection to the Dominion; and (2) the vital necessity Tor thorough sanitation, including t-hte sweeping away of slum areas, which, as stem experience Has demonstrated, are a source of grave danger, not merely to those who live in them, but to the community as a whole. It is a wellknown fact that in time of war the world is very likely to he afflicted by plague and pestilence, and this must, especially be the case during and after a. world-war such as that, we have just "been passing through. Returning sick and wounded soldiers are particularly liable to bring disease germs with them; yet. no special quarantine or other precautions seem to have ’been taken to prevent them doing so. Tt is clear, too, that" for months past—the Seamen’s Union called attention to the matter in September last—the crew* of ships trading to New Zealand have

been afflicted with influenza, hut no steps seemingly had beten taken to prevent the infection spreading here. It is a notorious fact, again, that rain are very dangerous carriers, and disseminators of disease germs, hut the National Government has persistently refused to enforce-on all overseas and ; intercolonial vessels tied up to New ! Zealand wharves tho use of tho New Zealand invented hawser-rat-trap, which j would not only effectually prevent j the rats getting ashore, hut would also 'ensure .their destruction and enable the authorities to ascertain by bacteriological investigation what ships, if any were bringing infection to our shores Further, it has long been known that the wharves, the stores, and tho warehouses of 'Wellington are simply swarming with rats, thus constituting a veritable powder-magazine that a chance ! spark in tho shape of one disease- J infected rat might set ablaze; yet no , sustained and determined effort has been made to get rid of these pests | That matter ought, surely to he taken j in hand at once; and while they arc j about, if the authorities should, at the sametime, rid the city and suburbs of j the |inauy stray flats and ownerless < dogs, which also are undoubtedly grave sources of danger to the health of the community.

The doctors, the. nurses, the soldiers, the civic organisations, the volunteer workers, and the officers and Ministerial heads of tho Public Health Departpnent, have done most- praiseworthy work in combating the epidemic. Especially deserving ~of commendation, arc tho self-sacrificing workers of all grades who have been fighting the fell disease in the actual firing-line so to speak; hut their work and their self-sacrifice will he robbed of their full worth if the community and the governing authorities, national and local, fail to take thoroughly to heart the lessons taught by the epidemic.