SLEEPING SICKNESS OR INFLUENZA?

Taranaki Daily News, 21 June 1919, Page 3

SLEEPING SICKNESS OR INFLUENZA?

'AMERICAN INVESTIGATIONS. THE MYSTERY DISEASE. Differences in medical opinion hare resulted from the appearance of encephalitis lethargica, or "sleeping sickness," and a controversy over the nature of the disease is imminent (says the New York Evening Post). Some doctors express the belief that the malady is a form of influenza, while others say that it is a new disease of unknown origin. Among those who hold to the former theory is Dr. T. L. Stedman, editor of the Medical Record, who said that there had been many cases of the disease in New York, but that the death of E. WMartin, of • Brooklyn, is the first to reach public attention. "Influenza does not always take the same form or attack the same organs of the body," Dr. Stedman said. "It may attack the lungs, the digestive organs, or the brain. When it attacks the brain it produces an inflammation which usually results fatally, ft is incorrectly called 'sleeping sickness",' and therefore may be confused with the disease caused by the bite of the tsetse fly. It does produce a comatose condition, and resembles sleeping sickness, but it has an entirely different cause" Asked if he believed there was danger of the disease becoming epidemic, Dr. .Stedman said that he did not, but qualified his opinion by saying there is no way of predicting the course of influenza.

"There have been cases of the disease all winter," he added, "and it has not become epidemic so far."

So far as the records of the New York Health Department show, there has never been a case of encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness, in the City of New York, according to Dr. William H. Guilfoy, registrar of records. "There probably will be a good deal of confusion resulting from the use of the term 'sleeping sickness' in connection with this disease," Dr. Guilfoy said, "and, while the exact nature of the disease lifts never been clearly defined, it is not the same as the trite sleeping sickness caused by the bits of the tsetse, and whioli is almost entirely confined to tropical Africa. Last summer 180 cases of what we call 'sleeping sickness' appeared in England, not confined to one locality, but scattered over the country. There was a wide difference of opinion among doctors there as to the true nature -of the disease, and many believed that it was a form of influenza. Another group held the opposite theory, and contended that it was not akin to influenza, but wias caused by an unknown agent which created an inflammation of the brain and induced the drowsiness which is one of the early symptoms of the disease. It hns been generally conceded that the latter contention is correct, for there was no particular connection between the 'sleeping sickness' and influenza. On this account it is difficult to treat, because its nature is no* well known."