DOCTORS BAFFLED.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 February 1927, Page 4

DOCTORS BAFFLED.

LONDON. Dec. 2. Sleepy sickness sti?. remains a medical mystery. The result of an investigation of the outbreak in Sheffield in 1024, by a committee of medical experts, including Dr ,). A. Hall, who with Dr Wilfred Harris. <d' l/ondon. first identified the disease in Kurland, is given in a report published to-day by the Medical Research Council (“The Sheffield Outbreak of Epidemic Enoephalities, 1021.' Is 9d). Professor F. E. Wynne, medical officer of health for Sheffield, one ol the investigators, takes the view that the epidemic character of sleepy sickness is associated with the world-wide lowering of resistance to infections in the last stage of \\‘ir “known as the influenza pandemic of IMS. ' 'fhe report finds that the correlation between sleepy sickness and iuflun/.a is a controversial subject. There was no very obvious connection between the two diseases in Sheffield. In 1924 influenza declined, but lethargic enccp’flalities reached unprecedented figures. , • Tiie following definite conclusions are drawn in the report : .Men and hays are more susceptible than women ami girls, but the mnrtalilv .among the latter sex is greater. The disease attacks every class, and | here is no evidence that overcrowding, poverty, or insanitary conditions in dwellings have any effect on promoting its incidence. There is no reUihe evidence that- the disease is transmitted bv direct contact or conveyed by water, milk or oilier food. Hast week 47 new eases were notified in England and Wales, an increase front fi.'l in Iho previous week.