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Show Sulfa Drugs Reduce Influenza Death Rate Physicians who went through the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919, and witnessed the hopelessness in the treatment of thousands of cases, now look with eager eyes toward future battles with influenza. It was because influenza went on to pneumonia and bronchopneumonia bronchopneumo-nia and the heart already damaged dam-aged by influenza was unable to sustain sus-tain the continued fight against pneumonia pneu-monia and bronchopneumonia, that so many victims died. Now that the physician has at hand the sulfa drugs which have reduced the death rate In pneumonia from nearly 10 per cent to about 3 per cent, he is able to fight influenza and pneumonia pneumo-nia successfully.': Some interesting figures were recently re-cently released by Dr. Louis I. Dublin Dub-lin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Insur-ance company. The figures show that there has been a decrease in the death rate of influenza and pneumonia pneu-monia of 65 per cent from 1900 to 1940, that Is from 202 per hundred thousand of the population in 1900 to 70 in 1940. While this is gratifying, the use of the sulfa drugs during 1941 and 1942 has caused an even more rapid decrease. How remarkable this drop in the death rate really is can only be realized by thinking of the Tate of decrease in the years 1900 to 1940, or before the general use of the sulfa drugs. For the general population, the decrease in the death rate from influenza and pneumonia has been at the rate of IMj a year for the 40 years. During the last two years, judging the whole population by the millions of wage earners and their families of the Metropolitan Insurance Insur-ance company, the death rate has decreased more than 14 per cent a year. In other words, the sulfa drugs have decreased the death rate in influenza and pneumonia over nine times as much each of the last two years as in any of the previous 40 years. |
