Health and Beauty

1908

Spanish Influenza - overview

Influenza, like fevers or smallpox, is both contagious and infectious. The danger from infection is greatest in the early stages of the disease, when catarrhal symptoms (such as sneezing, inflammation of the mucous membrane of the eyes, nose, and throat, and discharge from the nose, together with a mild fever) are usually present. And this is the time to practice strict isolation and to keep at a good distance from the patient. But the difficulty is that during this early stage, the disorder is often regarded as only a more or less severe cold in the head; and not until there is a marked rise in the temperature, and the patient suffers increasing aches and pains and exhaustion, is the real nature of the attack recog-nized and a diagnosis of influenza made. By that time, many others, perhaps dozens or scores, have caught the infection, and thus the malady spreads rapidly through the homes or the shops or the schoolrooms, as the case may be.

A number of complications may follow influenza. Of these, pneumonia is one of the most frequent and the most dangerous. It is generally accompanied by congestion of blood in the upper lobes of the lungs. The blood does not coagulate, but remains liquid; hence if the air passages be-I come filled, the patient dies of suffocation.

Truly influenza is a serious disease. But this fact should not alarm us. Rather it should arouse us to prompt, thorough action and treatment, that liyes may be saved.

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