INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1918, Page 2

INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC.

MORTALITY; iis EKGi-AND. . London, Nov. 7. Last week there v.e.-u Hi, deaths. ■ frojsi influenza in I'li town;; in Unghncl and U'alcs.—Au,s.-A./. Cai.de Assoo. It is officially stated that tho deaths from influenza in tluj ; e x>at towns of England and Wales are <ii7. compared willi 4-iS2 last wti'k, Tin; respective totals for London a;\s 4107 and 2227. iieuier, WIDIiSPKiIAD SUF.FiiEIiN T G. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Gisborao, Nov. 7.

Influenza victims are increasing daily. There were OS cases iu the. public hospital yesterday, and five deaths tlrrough complications due to influenza, Tjic Mayor issued a public announcement for a general clean up of the town, and suggests that parents do not send their children to places of amusement, itnd that everyone, as far as possible, shall avoid attending places of amusement or. assemblies or where there were erowas. 'Four teachers of tiho Gisbofne East school are ill, and 13 per cent, of the children are absent, though not necessarily owing to influenEa. The school was closed for a day or so. Invereargill, Nov. 7.

The influenza has been making itself unpleasantly felt here for the last week. It is not of the virulent typo like at Auckland, but many are suffering from the disease in a severe form, and business generally is short staffed. Eight nurses are down in the hospital to-day, and 40 prisoners in the reformatory. The inmates were recently received irom Aucklaud, and it is considered they are responsibSel An inhaling chamber h being opened, and other measures to check the spread of the disease.

PATIENTS IN CAMP. Wellington, Nov. 8. The total number of influenza patients in the Featherston and Trentham camps is 13>i0. Several soldiers have died in various centres from influenzaThe Fire Brigade is already shortstaffed, and its number has been further depleted by influenza. TWO iPALMEHSTON DEATHS. t Palmerston X., Nov. S. No. 75426, Private K. 11. Barber, Waifvini, Invercargill, died at Awapuni Camp this morning as the reauit of a sevara. attack of influenza. Adam Burgess, a well-known business man at SWmereton North, died this morning. A HAWERA RESOLUTION. iflawera, Nov. 3. The following resolution was passed at a special meeting of the Hawera Hospital Board to-day:—"That it be an urgent and strong recommendation to the Health Department to close all schools, picture theatres, churches, and other public gatherings in the Hawera hospHial district during the present influenza epidemic."

IN AUCKLAND. Most of the Auckland City hotels and hoarding-houses have assumed the aspect of hospitals, so many of the guests and members of the staffs having been affected (says the Herald). In most cases the stall's are much depleted, aud in one private h*jtel 22 out of 30 are incapacitated. The 'ballroom of one private hotel has been turned into an inliuenza ward for guests. There were scarcely any arrivals in hotels and boardiug-houses during the week-end. The epidemic haa assumed serious propqrtious at iho Narrow Neck Camp. Major W. E. Shaman, medical officer m cuaigc, stated yesteri'j'.y that he had 221 cases in hospital, some ci them pneumonic The majority of the patientj are Native soldiers, amonj? whom theie have been two deaths.

Twelve more hospital nurses have been stricken with the complaint, and also two of tlie jiniior medical oilicers, besides another doctor -who arrived from the South on Sunday to assist the local practitioners. Practically ail the private hospitals in the city have been compelled by the gravity of the situation to admit influenza patients- Those Buffering from pneumonic complications iu particular have been taken in, and tevcral deaths have occurred in spite of all that could be done. In some instances the private hospitals are refusing operation cases, in order to enable them to veceivo influenza patients. Numerous cases are reported of nurses at these institutions contracting the disease. INHALATION 1 CHAMBER AT NEW PLYMOUTH. In connection with the steps being taken at New Plymouth „o cheek the spread of influenza, the chairman of the Hospital Board reports that authorhy has been received iron* the, Department of Public Health to nitet all boats. The passengers who arrived by the Rarawa yesterday were sprayed with disinfectant, and at the wharf an inhalation chamiber sias now been instituted, and through it all passengers, arriving or departing, will hava to pass- Yesterdav the Rarawa itself and the passengers' Tuggaee were aiso disinfected. At tbe railway station, passengers by train, from Auckland will bo put through an inhalation chamber. _

A MYSTERIOUS SCOURGJ3, Influenza is of extraordinary interest from tho scientific standpoint. It is unquestionably a distinctive illness, which appears from time to time in great world epidemics, and is the sanii.- disease century after century- The extraordinary feature attaching to it is its pandemio character. It appears almost over the wiioly world within a very short period, and in circumstaneeuwhich are scarcely explicable by any theory of direct transmission either by human or animal sufferers There are many -.recorded instances of influenza attack' ing a ship's company at sac, and one of the classic records is that <A the naval squadrons which sailed from Spithead in ITS-3, under Admiral Kcuipenfeldt. The ships left port on May % and had no communication thereafter with, the .shore, cruw.g all file timifi between Brest and the Lizard. On Mav 26 influenza broke out in one ship, and in a few days the whole rfcet was so stricken that it' was necessary to rerttini to port. Tho squadron of 'Lord Howe, which was off the Dutch coast, was similarly attacked at the saute time, althmrah there was no jcrmMnnWtimi with the shore A stiH more striking record is that of a passenger ship called the-Stag, whichwas cominsr up the English 'Channel on Awil 3,1833. She pep<me<l to m. JJwoirshire coast st»tf*«'"sS -*«s*• '

tleuiy aiiectea with iauueuza. Oa that duy i-nc IVjiiias vvaiaou saw tue liiLil. two castas of iaUueuiUL m Loudon tfiiieh preceded lae general epidemic, ana the urease appeareu m a wholesale manner in the Portsmouth barracks oa the loliowing dayii'uitfe that day has come upon the seine the ■uaeemo'ogist, who points out the \-egctablo germs which must be visible before modern science can accept the disea.se as beyond all doubt. Time :,i uo question even among bacteriologists that all infectious diseac<> germs require a particuiar environment to enable .them ttj assume an epidcinio virulence. Popular theory has ttom time immemorial associated epidemic Jjafaivc with "something in the air," and if this phrase is translated into the scientist's ''optimum atmospheric environment," it means precisely the same thing. It may be impossible to imagine that a particular germ can be transmitted from China to Peiu in a few hours. But it is possible to infpiire if the germ be present in , each place to begin with could a pa.-cieuhir atmos-phi-ric chanpre of stat< be. transmitted which would encourage the disease or ganism to become- suddenly active? fii far. we know nothing of "the kind, but wo do know that an atmospherio disturbance in Cornwall can be transmitted in a few mhrutes over 12,000 miter of "space" to an atmosphere surround' jpg a "wireless" station in Australia. It gives one furiously to think that tW» are more possibilities of disease transmission in heaven and earth than our senece yet coinprehenda