The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-08-13
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
URE AU
EREDERfc J. EAsxIN. DtrSotor.
WAahingtan, D. C.
THE FLU IS COMING BACK.
WAshingt@. .. G

49, II
THE FLU IS COMING BACK.
Washington, d. c.. Aug. ST you
hope to keep your health this autumn.
get yourself into the pink of physical
condition. and take all possible precau-
lions to avoid infection. For the flu is
going to hit us again. and the amount
of damage II will do depends largely
upon how we'll we prepare for 1t. 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 people, and
this despite the fact that there are re-
minders of It everywhere. 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 Tor
old friends. has heard again and again
the depressing words, he died OF the
flu!"
4 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 browning glory re-
luctantly enough after having the flu.
Indeed. in some sections the flu is said
to have created quite q vogue for
bobbed hair.
Short hair is the least serious Of the
lafter-effects of influenza. Doctor
Geier says that 1t will add 40 per cent
to the mortality rate of the next five
years This means that 40 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-effects of the
FLU, even more than the number of
lives It destroys at once, make it
national calamity which We can Ill
afford to pass thru again. The coun-
try 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
United States will have suffered al
most as much loss of human power
as some European countries did thru
the war.
In support Of his claim that the in
fuenza epidemic will recur. Doctor
Geier cites the record of the nearly
allied disease of la grippe, which APP
peared in epidemic form in 1899. 1t
did not reach its peak until 1901, and
, two years after that it required 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 recurrent quality.
In the face of this literal certainty
that we will have to combat influenza
again next year, we are totally UMPIRE
: pared to do so. Medical science
knows little more about influenza to
day than IL did a year ago when the
scourge was spreading like a prairie
. fire over all the world. For this rea-
son, the doctors are making elaborate
} and extensive 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, diphtherta and typhus
, fever.
/ Among the medical men of this
, country making studies of the flu are
DIR. William H. Park. famous bacterf-
ologist and head of the bureau of
laboratories of the department OF
, health in New York; DR.. John F. An
derson. former director of the hygiene
laboratory of the federal government.
and DR.. E. L. Fisk. director OF the
I life extension institute.
: The American Medical association
, is promoting this research work. At
. its recent convention in Atlantic City,
a resolution was adopted asking con-
= gress to appropriate $1,500,O00 to
q stimulate and encourage research
. work. This suggestion was acted upon
l the other day, when Representative
{ Tess. of Ohio. introduced a resolution
E in congress for the appropriation OF
that amount. The money IS to be
turned over to the United States pub
lie health service to be used for Co
operation in the research work that is
being carried on by the various state
2 health departments.
Not only are the medical men of the
s country preparing for a temperance
o of the disease. but civic organizations
in different communities which under
= took to care for the numerous victims
of the epidemic a year ago, are also
. makinP plans against recurrence OF
a 1.-The na1ady These organizations do
not intend to be caught off their guard
: in the event of another outbreak. and
n in a number OF towns thruout the
I United States special committees have
p, been appointed to make preparations
: for just such an emergency During
q the epidemic a year ago, many thou
r sands of people died solely for want
=. | of care.
In his letter to Congressman Tess.
urging the federal appropriation, Doc
n tor Geier gives some impressive facts
. about the flu. He says it caused half a
million deaths in this country last year,
e and that it cost the insurance COM
p panies $240. 100000.
81 The economic loss to the country. he
says. is hard to estimate. but it is
: enormous. Economists agree that a
n human life is worth at least $4,000 to
4 the state, so that the monetary value
. OF the lives lost alone would be about
$2.50o. 5000 Add to this the work
o ing time lost by people who were sick,
s and the total economic loss to the
. country is somewhere between three
"a and four billion Doctor Geier cites
i these figures 70 show that 1t will pay
Il the taxpayers to let congress spend
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