Studies on Epidemic Influenza: Comprising Clinical and Laboratory InvestigationsUniversity of Pittsburgh. School of Medicine
History
Studies on Epidemic Influenza: Comprising Clinical and Laboratory Investigations
University of Pittsburgh. School of Medicine
Influenza; Influenza Epidemic, 1918-1919
Infections of the eye by the influenza bacillus are quite common. This
subject is fully discussed by Axenfeld (text-book, “The Bacteriology of
the Eye”). Giani and Picchi found it in the eye in 66 per cent. of
influenza cases, in 90 per cent. of epidemic conjunctivitis, and in the
normal eye of 5.8 per cent. Wynekoop, in 1903, reported having found
this organism in cases of conjunctivitis in 1899. Guiral, in the recent
epidemic, found influenza bacillus constantly present in the secretions
in cases of what seemed to be Week’s conjunctivitis. Ulceration of the
cornea was rather common. One such case is mentioned in which there was
no pain in the eyes, but general symptoms of influenza. The middle ear
is also sometimes infected. Between the report of Kossel in 1893 and
that of Stone and Swift in 1918, who found the middle ear and mastoid to
contain B. influenzæ in 8 of 17 cases, there have been many references
in the literature to this complication by the influenza bacillus. The
evidence indicates, however, that in the middle ear, as in the pleural
cavity, the secondary bacteria are far more often the important ones.
_Meninges_
Influenzal meningitis seems to stand by itself as a manifestation of the
pathogenic effects of B. influenzæ. The literature is too voluminous to
review in this place, but the evidence would seem to point to a more
invasive and pathogenic type of this organism, if not to a separate
member of the group.
_Invasion of the Blood Stream_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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