DEADLIER THAI WAR

Hokitika Guardian, 8 April 1921, Page 4

DEADLIER THAI WAR

EPIDEAIIC OF 1918.,

ITS CAUSE STILL ALYSTIFIES EXPERTS.

The cause of the influenza epidemic of 1918 is a problem which still remains unsolvel, states the bulky report issued by the .Ministry for Health, and hearing the signatures of several distinguished medical men. But, tlie report continues, “we are not wholly without means of reducing its incidence and mitigating its consequences. The secretions of the disease are transmitted in coughing and titlkiug in the form of line spray, and dust and unclean hands may* be the means of conveying infection. Hence the importance .. - of avoiding overcrowding.” 751,466 DEATHS IN ENGLAND. 'Flie report makes a close study historical, medical, and statistical of the devastating scourge which swept across the world generally in 1918-19, and it shows that in the short space of a few months the disease claimed a larger number of victims than fell dining the whole of the European wai. i and Wales alone the deart.h | toll reached the alarming total of 1 151,4(5(5. -Many of its victims were young men, and the subsequent loss to the productive power of the community 1 (-.institutes a grave social problem. ; But, apart altogether from the actual ! deaths, there are numberless men and women whose constitutions have been undermined, and whose vitality hm 1: >on sapped by the after-effects of the ; , pidmio. The loss thus entailed to the ionlth of the nation is one not to lit c imputed in terms of recorded statistics.

it. is true that since May. 1919. t number of deaths from influenza has never exceeded the normal, hut i> would he unwise to base any very timistic conclusions on such a Lift. T-h: pandemic of 1889-92 revealed for the first time tlie disease in successive waves, separated by short intenals. The 1918-19 pandemic was notable tor certain marked characteristics. Us appearance was sudden, and it showed an undoubted rapidity ol evolution. Its mortality was exceptional, its ravages icing chiefly felt among adolescents and "adults. Finally, it manifested it-

!f alike in crowded and insanitar

areas and in districts where the conditions of life are normally favourable to health. predisposing causes. Though scientists agree that I’feilf r's bacillus is associated with influenza, the final solution of the problem of the cause ol the disease has not ref been readied. Indeed, it is held that its solution will lie one of the greatest events in the history of medicine. But widespread misery and privation are. states the report, clearly predisj posing causes. “The conclusion to ; which we are led, write the compilers of tlie report, “is that the generation of n great pestilence such as influenza or pneumonic plague is dependent upon disturbance of social order, involving for absolutely large numbers of human beings the endurance of conditions of insalubrity which afford for invading parasites, a suitable field ol modifi-.-a- ---: tion. So soon as the new properties ! have been stabilised no barrier against the pandemic or epidemic 'extension j will avail, nor will those indivduals or j nations who have not suffered the primary evils be more resistant to the di- ’ sense than their fellows. No impartial 'spectator can doubt that at the pre- ; cut time, and almot certainly for a ‘ generation to come, there will exist in ’ many nation, and over wide tracts of I country, precisely the type of misery j which v.e suspect to be the appropriate j forcing house of a virulent and disp-r----j sivc germ.” Tt> C'OAIBAT INFLUENZA. However, there are effective means of reducing the incidence and mitigating tin 1 consequences of the disease. Many may he accomplished by public instruction in tlie practise of preventive methods. The infection of influenza and its allies appears to lie conveyed by tlu -ecretions of the respiratory «nr faces. Tn coughing, sneezing, and e/eu in loud talking These are transmitted through the air for considerable distances in the form of fine spray. The channels of reception are also normally tin- respiratory surfaces of mouth, nose and throat—though dust, unclean hands and iiiifeeaed materials may he the moans of conveying infection. FI cnee the paramount importance of reducing the opportunities of infection by avoiding over-crowding and thronging of every sort, whether in places of public resort, public conveyances, or factories.

Well-ventilated rooms, nourishing food,, and an open air life afford some defence; and in times of prevalence of respiratory catarrh or sore throat, the frequent use of a.n appropriate gargle (for example' 20 drops of liquor sodae ehlorinatae in a tumbler of warm water and nasal wash may be recommended. At the first fooling of illness, or rise of temperature, the patient should go to bed at once, remain-at rest and in warmth, and place* himself at once under medical supervision, for it oonnot be too clearly understood that it is the complications of influenza which disable or destroy life

But as Sir George Newman has written, “the only sure defence against sudden and murderous epidemics is to raise the whole standard of tlie life of this nation, indeed, of the whole comity ,of nations.” That is to say until a universal improvement in the standard of comfort, and the conditions of life is secured there will be no prospect of mitigating effectively the incidence of this deadly complaint. Other diseases have been brought under -ontrol; influenza still eludes us.