Influenza : $b An epidemiologic studyVaughan, Warren T. (Warren Taylor)
History
Influenza : $b An epidemiologic study
Vaughan, Warren T. (Warren Taylor)
Influenza
The epidemics in Detroit and Boston both showed a symmetrical evolution
and a single wave. This appears to have been the more frequent type of
recurrence in this country. There are examples of the secondary curve.
At the Great Lakes Naval Training Station the epidemic began during the
week ending January 17th. On January 12th there were fifty-one cases.
The peak was reached on the third day with the admission of 182 new
cases during twenty-four hours. Although the peak came early the decline
was less rapid and there were four secondary peaks, but the outbreak
terminated on the twenty-fourth day. On the whole the epidemic was less
severe than in 1918. Pneumonia was a complication in about ten per cent.
of the reported cases of influenza at the training station.
On the European continent there were similar recurrences in the first
three months of 1920. In the large towns of England the recorded deaths
from influenza made an increase in a steady curve from sixty-six in the
last week of January until the week ending March 27th. After that date
there was a gradual falling off. That the situation was in no way as
serious as it was at the same time in the American cities and in certain
other parts of Europe is indicated by an annotation in the Lancet of
March 6th. According to this annotation, the weekly totals of deaths
attributed to influenza in London and the 96 great towns had on the
whole tended to increase in the early part of 1920, but the absolute
increment was so small and the necessary uncertainty of classification
so great that no unfavorable inferences could be drawn from these
fluctuations alone. On the other hand, the notifications of cases of
pneumonia increased appreciably, too much to be set down as a mere
chance fluctuation. But notification for this disease had not been in
force long enough to enable accurate comparison. There were no
indications of epidemic influenza in any of the large factories situated
throughout the country. But on the other hand there was proof of the
existence of epidemic influenza of an infectious, but relatively
non-fatal type in certain large schools situated in the South and
Southwest of England.
The annotation concludes that influenza was epidemic in a few localized
English and Welsh communities, and that the type was similar to, but
less severe than that of 1918–19.
In the city of Paris between the 11th and 31st of January there was a
very definite increase in the death rate from inflammation of the
respiratory tract above the average for other years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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