Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-08-07
DEADLY FLU is
DUE To STRIKE
COUNTRY AGAIN
Physicians Conduct Exhaustive
Research to Unearth Means
to Combat the Disease.
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKTN.

Washington, Aug. IF you hope
to keep your health this autumn,
get yourself into the pink of ply
steal condition and take all posi-
bic precautions to avoid infection.
Fer the flu is going to hit us again,
and the amount of damage it will
do depends largely upon how well
we prepare for it. This is the
cheering message of DR.. Otto
Geier OF Cincinnati, secretary of
the American Medical association.
Already the visitation of the most
dramatic and destructive plague of
modern times is beginning to grow
dim in the memories Of many pee
pie, and this despite the fact that
there are reminders of it every
where. Nearly everyone has a
friend who is not able to work as
he did before he got the flu. Nearly
everyone who has travelled during
the past year, and inquired for ODD
friends, has heard again and again
the depressing words, "he died Ct
the flu"
Nearly everyone has noticed, too,
the surprising number of women
with short hair Some of these are
afflicted with artistic inclinations
but most of them gave up their
crowning glory reluctantly enough
after having the flu. Indeed, in
some sections the flu is said to
have created quite a vogue for
bobbed hair.
Increases Mortality Rate.
Short hair is the least serious of
the after-affects Of influenza. Doc
tor Geier says that it will add 40
per cent to the mortality rate for
the next five years. This means
that 30 per cent more people will
die than would have died had there
been no flu. They will die because
this strangely weakening disease
has Slapped their resistance to
other diseases.
These fearful after-affects of the
flu, even more than the number Of
lives il destroys at once, make it a
national calamity which We can i'll
afford to pass through again. The
country is streWn with men who
thought that they were in their
prime, and who got over the flu
only to find that they were old and
about done; with women who can
no longer be wives or mothers
since they had the flu, and with
children whose growth has been
checked. One or two more winters
with such epidemics, and the Unit
cd States will have suffered almost
as much loss of human power as
some European countries did
through the war.
In support Of his cIaih that the
Influenza will recur, DR.. -Geier
cites the record of the nearly al
lied disease of la grippe, which ap-
peared in epidemic form in 1899.
It did not reach it's peak until 1901
and two years after that 1t re-
CURED and destroyed thousands Of
lives. We have had two other
epidemics of grippe or influenza,
one in 1867 and the other in 1895,
and both of these showed the same
Tecurrent quality.
Totally Unprepared.
In the face of this literal GER
tainty that we will have to combat
influenza again next year, we are
totally unprepared to do so. Medi-
cal science knows little more about
influenza today than it did q year
ago when the scourge was spread
AH5 Inc u prairie nI6 over Hi LIE
world. For this reason, the doc
tors are making elaborate and ex-
stensive research into the cause and
effect of the disease in order to
try to be better prepared for the
next outbreak. Medical men are
hopeful of discovering a specific
remedy for the flu as was done in
the cases of yellow fever, diphtheria,
and typhus fever.
Among the medical men of this
country making studies of the flu
are DR.. William H. Park, famous
bacteriologist and head of the bu-
Teau Of laboratories of the depart
ment of health in New York; DR..
John T. Anderson, former director
of the hygiene laboratory of the
federal government, and DR.. E. L.
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