Half of Us Carry Influenza Germs

1919

BACILLUS PERSIST IN THROAT FOR SEVERAL MONTHS.

Presence of Microbes Found in Throats of Persons Who Have Never Had Disease.

Almost half of us carry the bacilli of influenza in our noses and throats all the time, according to a large number of investigations made in the last two years.

During the epidemic of influenza last year, Drs. I. W. Pritchett and E. G. Stillman found the bacillus influenzae in the throats and saliva of 42 per cent of 177 healthy persons from whom no history of respiratory infection was obtainable. At the same time Drs. F. T. Lord, A. C. Scott, Jr., and R. N. Nye found them in the pharingeal secretions of 76 per cent of thirty-four healthy men in the Harvard Student Army Training Corps. Dr. E. L. Opie and his collaborators found them in 35.1 per cent of all healthy men examined at Camp Funston.

Many Are Germ Carriers.

Now comes Drs. Agnes I. Windrell and Ernest G. Stillman with a report to the Journal of Experimental Medicine on examinations since the epidemic died out. This indicates that the percentage incidence of those harboring bacillus influenzae in the upper respiratory tract is as great during the post-epidemic period as it was during the influenza epidemic.

During December, 1913, to June, 1919, the percentage of carriers in a group of fifty individuals has averaged 4 per cent per month. In addition, it is of interest that in a boys' orphan asylum in which no cases of influenza had occurred during the epidemic, 30 per cent of throat cultures taken from 99 boys showed the presence of bacillus influenzae.

And this last is the same percentage as was found in fifty-two convalescents from influenza in an institution for girls.

Germ Persists for Months.

"It is evident," writes these investigators, "that bacillus influenzae may persist in the throats of healthy carriers for a considerable period of time." They cite six cases in which it persisted for five months and in thirteen others for four months.

Therefore, as nearly every second person has the germs of this disease in his throat, it behooves us all to be very careful to keep up our strength by cleanliness, fresh air and wholesome food in order that we may not lose our powers of resistance and open the way for these deadly microbes to invade our blood in such force that we cannot repel their attack.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 9.

Flu Victim Sleeps 26 Days

1920

Strange Illness Sets in Whole Year After Epidemic Attack

OXFORD, Pennsylvania — Influenza is blamed for a stupor that has afflicted a youth of this place for twenty-six days. The lad is Chester Williams, 19-year-old son of William Williams, a farmer.

In good health the lad bade his father "good night" several weeks ago and retired in a lively mood. Next morning he could not be aroused. He has now slept twenty-six days, but at times he appears to be semi-conscious and then he is fed. He understands at these times what is said to him, but cannot talk. Once he did speak to his father in a very weak voice.

Dr. Wilson, who is attending the lad, thinks his condition might have been caused by an attack of influenza that he suffered over a year ago. He eats heartily when in the state of semi-wakefulness and drinks much water.


Burglars Build Wooden Platform

CHESTER, Pennsylvania — Burglars took time to build a wooden platform in front of a window at the store of Benjamin Bischof, in Essington. After destroying a lot of stock they took goods valued at several hundred dollars. The proprietor thinks it was done partly as an act of revenge, as he was threatened several weeks ago.

Declares His Wife's Body Vanished, Man Sues Cemetery

1920

NEW YORK, N.Y. — The alleged disappearance of a woman's body from the receiving vault of Calvary cemetery during the influenza epidemic in 1918 was the basis of a suit for $100,000 damages filed against the trustees who control the cemetery.

The suit is brought by Gaetano Ripatranzone, whose wife, Annie, died Oct. 12, 1918. Frank J. Rinaldi, his attorney, said the body was placed in the receiving vault of the cemetery, and the family was to be notified when a grave was ready. When no word was received, the attorney said the husband investigated and learned his wife's body had been lost or had disappeared.

John G. Agar, vice president of the board of trustees, was served with the summons. He said the cemetery officials claimed every body had been accounted for and any trouble should be between the family and the undertaker.

The Rev. William J. Stewart, who was managing director of the cemetery at the time specified, produced a letter which Supt. J. J. Cunningham of the cemetery sent him, saying Ruggiero Trepani & Co., undertakers, had brought a body described as that of "Anna Ripatranzone, 37 years," to the cemetery, and it was placed on the floor. He explained that bodies were coming faster than graves could be opened, and the receiving vault became filled, so arrivals were placed on the floor and a record of their location kept.

"The orders of the health department to place all bodies in temporary graves within a given time," he wrote, "tended to increase the work of identification."

It is said that when the department of health ordered the immediate temporary burial of all bodies they were placed in three trenches 16 feet wide, 330 feet long and 4 feet deep. They were tabulated, and later were interred in their proper grave holdings, except the body of one woman. It is said 14,000 bodies were received during four months of the epidemic.

Note: The last name of the man and his wife is spelled two different ways in the article. "Ripatranzone" is the first instance, "Repatrazone" is how she's referred to. I changed it, somewhat arbitrarily, based on the number of Google hits for each.