THE INFLUENZA OUTBREAK.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2616, 7 August 1923, Page 2

THE INFLUENZA OUTBREAK.

MINIMISING THE PNEUMONIA DANGER. The recent fatal eases of influenza followed by pneumonia serves to draw attention to a very radical distinction between winter epidemics, stressed by Dr. Armstrong (says the Sydney “Guardian”).

“Pneumonic influenza” is the term coined in 1018 to designate the deadly epidemic which swept across the world in that year. It reached Australia in 1919 and was responsible for hundreds of fatalities, though it was by then not nearly so deadly as its first turn on the battlefields of Europe just prior to the Armistice. NOT “INFLUENZA” AT ALL.

This epidemic was a virulent three-day fever, which was followed without intermission, in 90 per cent, of the cases by a fatal attack of pneumonia. It was caused —as proved by Nieolle and Lebailly in 1918 —by a virus which could pass through a germ-proof filter and was not “influenza” in tlie ordinary sense at all. This virulent disease has not re-appeared to any extent since it died out in Australia —its last port of call. Ordinary influenza is an infection of the throat and lungs by a mixed invasion of at least five species of germs, the most important being the so-called “influenza” bacillus of Pfeiffer. If reasonable care is not taken to avoid a chill after an attack of this milder disease, the patient is liable to contract pneumonia, but no more so than "after an attack of measles or any other depressing infection. In true virulent influenza, however, the rarity was for pneumonia not to supervene. The germ of pneumonia is a natural inhabitant of the mouth of every healthy human being, and apparently lives there quietly under ordinary circumstances without doing mischief. Once the virus of the 1918 epidemic got into the system however, it was a different story. The harmless germ turned on its host, and quickly involved his weakened system in a deadly struggle with death, / “GO SLOW.” • The cause of this change iu the pneumococcus is still a mystery, blit the most rational explanation put.- it down to the exhaustion in the blood (by the virus) of some substance that kept the germ of pneumonia iu check. Pneumonia supervening oil ordinal y influenza may be due to perhaps a similar weakening of the body’s defences, but in a majority of cases is due to iusuflicient eare to avoid exposure after an attack of “’flu.” The best advice we can give the influenza brigade, both to avoid pneumonia or a fatal attack of failure of a weakened heart is, therefore, that of our original influenza warning—“Go slowl”