Influenza : $b An epidemiologic studyVaughan, Warren T. (Warren Taylor)
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Influenza : $b An epidemiologic study
Vaughan, Warren T. (Warren Taylor)
Influenza
Fränkel and Dublin have studied the racial distribution of 70,729 deaths
among policy holders of the Industrial Department of the Metropolitan
Life Insurance Company, particularly with respect to incidence among
white and black. Normally the mortality from respiratory diseases is
higher among colored persons than among whites. In the seven year period
from 1911 to 1917, influenza-pneumonia death rates showed an excess of
72 per cent. colored males over white males and of 56 per cent. colored
females over white females. During the period of the epidemic the
situation was reversed. The whites suffered from higher rates than the
colored. While the rate among white males during the period, October to
December, 1918, was nearly fifteen times as great as during the period
1911 to 1917; that of colored males was only seven times as great as the
rate during the same seven year period. White females during the height
of the epidemic showed a rate more than sixteen times as high as the
normal, while colored females experienced a rate only nine times as
high. After the first of January, 1919, the excess rate returned slowly
to the normal figures. These facts are based on death rate only.
Any comparison of race morbidity or mortality, to be of value, must be
based on observations of individuals living in the same climate, in the
same domestic environment, and in similar age distribution. It is
practically impossible to discover groups living under such conditions.
Howard and Love, perhaps, approached more nearly to such an ideal in
studying the white and black races in the Army, but even in the military
forces many factors are at play. Thus, the death rate among enlisted men
was highest among the American troops in the United States (12.02);
second in Europe (6.07); third in Panama (1.09); fourth in Hawaii
(0.55); fifth in the Philippine Islands (0.14). By race it was highest
for the colored troops (12.69); second for the white (8.83); third for
the Porto Ricans (7.80); fourth for the Filippinos (2.84); and fifth for
the Hawaiians (1.72). The authors point out that while the native troops
had higher admission rates than the whites, the death rates were lower,
which illustrates the point that the death rate for this type of disease
is lower in the summer and in the tropics.
SECTION IV.
AN INTENSIVE STUDY OF THE SPREAD OF INFLUENZA IN SMALL GROUPS OF CLOSELY
ASSOCIATED INDIVIDUALS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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