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Show The life expectancy w ons in the high-risk;W. so improved by jm 6" according to statistic-United statistic-United States pl1Cs: Service, that surviVa, ' become for many 0f a : event of a general en?' most a matter 0f rk the choice must be Tf before the epidemic ..7 time to immunize a. ' enza this year is n ber. w century. During the 1918 - 1919 oandemic, there were m the world probably 200 million cases and more than 10 million deaths in less than 12 months. Ten per cent of the cases were in the United States, and about 450,-000 450,-000 deaths occurred here in less than six months. Utah's new Director of Public Health, G. D. Carlyle Thompson M D noting that national warnings to the high risk nroups last year went generally unheeded, says: "Relatives and friends of the chronically ill, 01 pregnant women and of all those iver 65, should insist that those vulnerable ones be immunized immediately, either by fir s t inoculations or boosters. An epidemic epi-demic of influenza is overdue-it overdue-it may come this fall and winter win-ter We cannot afford to risk the valuable lives of those we care for." 1 NEED NOT DIE from influenza -induced causes between November Novem-ber and March if they are vaccinated vac-cinated NOW, IN OCTOBER. The vaccine is, probably, of no value after influenza is contracted. con-tracted. It must be taken before be-fore the months of danger It should be taken NOW, IN OCTOBER. OCT-OBER. ! The shot you took last year will not protect you this year you need an annual booster, early each fall. (If you have not had a first immunization, two i shots with and interval between, are required the first year). What is influenza? Until recent re-cent years, we had to make do with such practical but inexact definitions as: "an apparency sudden disturbance of the public pub-lic health by the occurrence of a very large number of cases of Ulness characterized as regards a majority by signs and symptoms symp-toms affecting the respiratory tract." But modern science has established that influenza i s caused by an identifiable virus and, while the symptoms may seem the same as those of the common cold and other respiratory respira-tory infections, the virus can be identified positively in the laboratory. labo-ratory. As nearly everyone now knows, influenza symptoms include in-clude an abrupt onset of chills, fever, headache, muscular pain, prostration, cough and nasal discharge, lasting one to six days, usually two to three. Influenza In-fluenza seldom results in death to young and normally healthy people, but is fatal, as a comp- lication, to many of fall ages with chronic chest and heart ailments and to pregnant women wo-men and senior citizens. Hence, the urgent need for annual immunization im-munization of all those in these special groups. Influenza is probobly as old as man and joins bubonic plague and smallpox as the suspected biblical and early plagues ofj Europe and the far-East. The first authentic outbreak was described de-scribed in 1510 and since then, aside from the frequent, cyclic epidemics, pandemic or worldwide world-wide epidemics have swept the globe about four times each Health Leaders Warn Of Flu 'Bug' Epidemic Humanity has not won the race against influenza, the greatest killer of all time: and in the 1961-62 season, because there is unusual danger of an epidemic, we had better RUN SCARED. Influenza recurs in cycles, the Asian type every two to three years, Type B every four to 10 years. We, in the United States, were lucky last year and had no major epidemic; but both types were prevalent in other countries, notaDiy in nngiana where influenza was the direct and indirect cause of several thousand deaths. England had an epidemic in 1951; and it reached our country the following follow-ing year. The major outbreaks in England early in 1961 were also followed shortly by increased increas-ed activity of the virus in New York. No less an authority than the surgeon general of the United States Public Health Service warns us of the current danger. His recent warning was based on studies by the National Advisory Ad-visory Committee on influenza which resulted in the opinion that an upswing in the influenza cycle is likely to hit this country coun-try in the fall and winter of 1961-62. Why warn against an epidemic epidem-ic which, if inevitable, cannot be stayed? Why "run scared" in a race which cannot, numerically, be won? Because many, and each of us individually, may a-void a-void the disease with the exercise exer-cise of ordinary prudence. Because Be-cause the lives of many can be saved by immunization. Immunization could have saved the lives of 86,000 Americans Ameri-cans between September, 1957 and March, 1960 whose death from all causes was triggered by influenza. Most of these j deaths, preventible by pre-vac-jcination, occurred to those in three special groups: 1. Persons of all ages with chronic disease such as heart disease, throat and chest diseases, dis-eases, diabetes, etc. 2. Persons over 65 years of age. 3. Pregnant women. Many people in these groups |
