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41
particular district can be explained by droplet infection; there are
so many sufferers that its spread by this means can easily be
imagined, but its progress throughout the country is difficult to
explain on this hypothesis alone, so rapidly may it spread from one
end of the country to the other.
All our twenty-eight deaths occurred in January and
February.
In one respect Influenza differs markedly from most virus
diseases; an attack does not confer immunity upon an individual.
The most familiar virus diseases in this country are Small-pox,
Chicken-pox and Measles, and it is well-known that an attack of any
one of these diseases confers an immunity that in most instances
lasts a lifetime, but it is a common experience that some persons are
peculiarly liable to Influenza, and suffer from it at each epidemic.
In the epidemic of last year, as in others, this was noticed by the
doctors, and evidently repeated attacks do not confer any lasting
immunity. The age-distribution of the deaths from Influenza also
points to the same conclusion. Most of the deaths were in elderly
people; last year only two deaths occurred in persons under 45 years
of age; 13 deaths occurred in persons between 45 and 65 years of
age, and 12 in persons over 65 years of age.
TUBERCULOSIS.
77 cases of Pulmonary Tuberculosis, and 13 cases of other
forms of Tuberculosis were notified during the year.
There were 37 deaths from Pulmonary Tuberculosis and 2
deaths from other forms of Tuberculosis. The notification-death
interval of the 37 patients who died from Pulmonary Tuberculosis
in 1937 was:—
Information from Death Returns 4
Died within 1 month after notification 6
Died between 1 and 3 months after notification 5
„ „ 3 and 6 ,, ,, ,, 3
„ „ 6 and 12 ,, ,, ,, 5
„ „ 1 and 2 years ,, „ 5
„ „ 2 and 3 „ „ „ 2
Died over 3 years after notification 7
The following table gives the age incidence of new cases of
tuberculosis in 1937 and of the deaths from the disease in the area
in 1937.