INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 May 1919, Page 7

INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC.

POSITION STILL SATISFACTORY. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, May 7. The health authorities reported yesterday that Karl Larsen, one of the Manuka's firemen, who was in quarantine on Somes Island, has succumbed to influenza. Apart from this unfortunate occurrence the position i 3 generally satisfactory and no fresh developments have taken place since Saturday. DEATHS IN VICTORIA. % Melbourne, May 7. The report of the Government Statistician states that during the first three months of 1919 there were 628 deaths from influenza and that approximately G per cent, of all the cases reported were fatal.

I INFLUENZA LESSONS FROM i AMERICA. GREATEST SAFEGUARD IS AVOIDANCE OF PANIC Medical men in Chicago, at their own Medical Society, and in conjunction with the American Public Health Association, discussed pneumonic iufluenza, its causes, its development, and its cure. They seemed to be satisfied that there was no accredited cure by drugs, and that until one was discovered it would be better to allow nature a pretty free hand. One of them, Dr. C. S. Nelson, writing in the Illinois State Register, remarked very significantly—and the observation has more than a Chicago application:— "If the laws of our State are such that one man, who has had little, if any, experience as a practical physician, can lay down health rules that a multitude of physicians of equal, if not superior, ability say are pernicious, it is time our laws were revised. The ruleß governing our recent and present influenza epidemic are fair samples. The unnecessary publicity given this disease through the liberal use of printers' ink, which seems to be the principal asset of the present Director of Public Health the scare headlines in the newspapers—have had the effects of which any practising physician can testify. . . . "The greatest Safeguard is the avoidance of panic. Some of the rules are amusing: 'Don't get excited,' 'Keep cool,' etc. Equivalent to a man getting up in a crowded theatre and yelling 'Fire!' and then telling his audience not to get excinted. Closing of public schools, theatres, churches, business places, etc., has been an absolute failure. We have had epidemics of influenza many times before—minus panic health ruie9 and publicity—which ran their course, the same as this one must, with less serious results than we are having this time."

VALUE OP .MASKS. "As far as the Board of Health is concerned, San Francisco will continue to wear its mask? until the influenza epidemic has been stamped out beyond the probability of a recurrence," says the San Francisco Chronicle of February 17.

"The board refused unanimously last night to lMomrafnd to the Mayor repeal of the mask ordinance adopted two weeks ago. It will meet again on Monday to decide whether conditions at that time will warrant removal of the city's barrier of gauze. Dr. William C. Hassler (city health officer) reported to the board tbut the masks, in eleven days, had reduced very considerably the number of new cases each day. " 'lf there is another epidemic,' added Dr. Hassler. 'orders should be issued to close the theatres, churches, ballrooms in hotels, and other places of congregation. These have been the persistent violators of the ordinance during the present epidemic." " The Chronicle also publishes the following table showing the number of cases and deaths without the masking system and the number with thQ maskiug system.

Without masks: January Iff, 510 new cases, 50 deaths; January US, 538 new cases, 42 deaths; January 17, 510 new cases, 39 deaths; January 18, 412 new cases, 25 deaths; January 19, 400 new cases, 16 deaths.

With masks; January 20, 368 new cases, 40 deaths; January 21, 183 new 'cases, 22 deaths; January 22, 164 new cases, 15 deaths; January 23, 118 new cases, 11 deaths; January 24, 85 new cases, 20 deaths; January 25, 35 new cases, 10 deaths; January 20, 12 new cases, 4 deaths; January 27, 54 new cases, 13 deaths; January 28, 41 new cases, 9 deaths; January 29, 31 new case 9, 8 deaths; January 30, 39 new cases, 4 deaths.

'FLU AFTERMATH. San Francisco, March 25. The United States is now afflicted with a terrible epidemic as an aftermath of the dread Spanish influenza and pneumonia, which has carried off hundreds of thousands of the American population. Cases of sleeping sickness are scattered all over the American domain, but, at the time of writing, not in alarming numbers. Twenty-one deaths have already occurred. More than 100 cases have been listed as actual sleeping sickness in seventeen cities, but there arc believed to be mcilv ag yef unrecorded. Cleveland and vjjHwigfteld. Illinois, each reported 25 cases. JS'ew York had forty, Chicago's number was unknowm, the health authorities not desiring to make the figures public. Other points showing "a trace" of the malady were:—Richmond, Virginia, San Francisco, Fort Worth, Calumet, Michigan, Minneapolis, Des Moines, Los Angeles, Lancaster, Ohio, Boston, Harrisbnrg, Albany, and Pittsburg. In this disease the sufferer lapses into a state of coma. In many instances the recovery is complete. .Some have been known to sleep for eight .or ten days and then "come to life" in good health. A number of committees are considering taking precautions similar to those taken against the spread of influenza.