Evening star., 1932-12-24
INFLUENZA GAINS,
BUT IN MILD FORM
THROUGHOUT U. S.
Public Health Service Con-
fident There Will Be No
Great Epidemic.
DISEASE WORKS WAY
FROM SOUTHERN AREA
General Prostration Distinguishes
Malady From Cold, Says DR..
James P. Leake.

Although the prevalence of influenza
has increased almost a hundredfold in
the past month the Public Health Serv-
ice Is confident there will not be an
other great epidemic such as swept the
country during the war.
All reports received to date, accord
ing to Dr. James P Leake Of the Pub
lie Health Service, indicate the present
epidemic is of a milder sort, so far as
death rate is concerned. than even that
of the Winter of 1929. This in turn
was much milder than that of the
Winter of 1918, when the disease was
q veritable death plague. Thus far the
great concentration of the disease is
In the South, although it appears to be
working its way northward.
Numerous inquiries are being received
at the Public Health Service on the
differentiation between cold, la
grippe and influenza, and DR.. Leake
says it is not easy to give a specific
answer
Differences in Diseases.
Generally, he said. it is preferable to
restrict the term cold to condition
more or less localized in the nose and
throat, usually without fever and caus-
ing little general prostration The
outstanding characteristic OF influenza
on the other hand is the general pros
tration. 1t affects the whole organism
but may have local effects similar 10
that of a cold Although there is a
considerable element of personal judg
ment, DR.. Leake said, an experienced
physician usually can differentiate the
two successfully. although there may
be some difference of opinion
AS for Ia grippe''-it is an old-fash-
ioned, generalized term no longer in
very good standing in medical science.
1t may be applied to anything from a
bad cold through influenza to mild
pneumonia and usually is elf-diag-
nosiS.
Another differentiating point. Dr.
Leake pointed out is that colds, al
though highly contagious. are more or
less localized in distribution while the
FLU" spreads rapidly over large area.
A physician usually would hesitate TO
diagnose an isolated case as influenza
Cause Undetermined.
The actual organism responsible for
influenza, DR.. Leake explained, still is
debatable. and medicine is no nearer a
specific remedy than ever. Near the
close of the great flu epidemic which
swept over the world at the close of the
last century the so-called Pfeiffer Or
ganism, a bacterium. was isolated in
France and was accepted as the causa-
tive agent Of the disease, So when the
great war epidemic broke out. there
was much probably useless experimental
ton with serums. The responsibility of
the Pfeiffer organism became more and
more doubtful as the epidemic prog
ressed and the death rate went up.
Experiments during the past 10 years
have demonstrated almost conclusively,
DR.. Leake says, that the flu is an
other of the maladies due to the mys-
terious filterable viruses. The actual
virus responsible. however. is not GER
tainly known. Samples of so-called in
f1uenza virus have been obtained sew
eral times. But none of these has
shown sufficient stability of reaction
to make the identification certain. Bac-
teriologists still are a long way from
the certainty with which they have
identified the virus of infantile paralysis.
In fact, DR.. Leake says, some physicians
still cling to the conviction that the
Pfeiffer bacillus is the really responsible
agent, and they cannot positively be
proved wrong.
Like many other of the filterable
virus diseases, influenza differs greatly
in virulence from outbreak to outbreak
Whether there is loss of potency in
the virus itself or whether resistance
is built up among the populace in gen.
eraf is not known. There is not likely
to be any immediate return Of the 1918
condition.
Explanations Numerous.
Numerous explanations have been ad-
yanced for this fluctuation in virulence.
Amcng the more interesting is that of
Dr. AleS Hrdlicka. curator of physical
anthropology of the Smithsonian Insti-
tuition. who advances the theory that
virus disease may actually be due
tremely primitive form of life on
earth. perhaps by the same means
through which life arose in the
beginning. The filterable virus particles
are considered very close to the most
primitive of living things This new
form of life must fight for existence
and gradually becomes adjusted in a
milder form or is eliminated altogether
Statistical studies of the Public
Health Service have shown there has
been an increased death rate during the
great flu epidemics apparently entirely
independent of this disease itself, or
the pneumonia which usually is re-
sponsible for it's fatal termination.
There is no explanation for this effect
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