Influenza : $b An epidemiologic studyVaughan, Warren T. (Warren Taylor)
History
Influenza : $b An epidemiologic study
Vaughan, Warren T. (Warren Taylor)
Influenza
“In the English Responsoria (1, 54) the epidemic constitution of 1679 is
described as a recurrence of that of 1675—that is, as having the
features of primary epidemic influenza. In the five following years
intermittents prevailed, and in one (1684) the mortality much exceeded
that of 1679, although the deaths from smallpox were fewer. Again, a
hundred years later, in 1782, there was a famous summer epidemic of
influenza in London which gave rise to much discussion. The London
mortalities in 1782 and 1783 were, however, almost equal, when the
smallpox deaths (which were nearly three times as numerous in 1783 as in
1782) are subtracted from the total mortality of each year.
“Whether these vague indications are sufficient to permit of our
thinking that the epidemic constitution of 1889–94 was not entirely
unprecedented is disputable. But the contrast of the latter period with
the preceding single epidemic of 1847–48 is striking; that was a primary
epidemic without important sequelae.
“We have now to consider whether our experience this year is concordant
with that of the early nineties, a reversion to the earlier type, or a
new phenomenon.”
After comparing the 1889 curves with those for the July, 1918, outbreak
in England, Greenwood concludes: “I believe that the evidence just
presented establishes a substantial identity between the summer outbreak
of 1918 and the primary wave of 1889–90. We do not need to appeal to any
new factor arising out of the war to account for it.
“I next consider the secondary epidemic which we are now experiencing
(October, 1918). Evidently our knowledge of the events in 1891 would
lead us to feel no surprise at the emergence of a secondary wave,
although we could not be sure that the precedent of 1847 would not be
followed.
“The summer epidemic of 1918 in the Royal Air Force included nearly 80
per cent. of the total incidence within the three weeks containing the
maximum, and the Munich epidemic included just over 80 per cent. within
the same limits. Now if the current epidemic has reached its maximum,
not more than 65 per cent. of the incidence will probably be so
concentrated, and the duration will therefore be longer than in the
summer; if, as suggested by the ratio of the last two ordinates, the
maximum is not yet attained, then the quota of the three first weeks is
likely to be still smaller and the complete duration still longer.
“The diagram of factory sickness leads to the same inference, which is
that, from the standpoint of prevalence, the present is a typical
secondary epidemic, congruent with that of 1891.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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