OCR Text |
Show Pneumonia Season Strikes Utah, November To March i monia is its most serious complication. complica-tion. It has been officially estimated esti-mated that 3-4 of all cases of pneumonia pneu-monia follow attacks of common colds. Experience of health officers throughout the country shows that colds are most prevalent during the period from September -to March. In a recent study in New York State of several hundred individuals, individ-uals, 73 per cent of the normal ones were found to be carriers of pneum-ococci, pneum-ococci, the germ which causes a high percentage of all cases of pneumonia, Dr. McKay pointed out. These organisms may have little or no effect, he said, upon the individual indi-vidual until his resistance becomes lowered by other destructive factors, such as the common cold. If you have a cold, Dr. McKay advises, ad-vises, stay at home. Thus the chance of serious complications will be decreased, de-creased, and the symptoms of the cold, of course, will clear up more rapidly. Consult your family physician, phy-sician, he says, immediately, because be-cause he can advise you as the most Communicable diseases reported to the Utah State Board of Health during the week ending October 28 numbered 235 cases, according to the weekly report released today by Dr. William M. McKay, director of the division of communicable disease control. This is an increase of 135 cases over the preceding week. With the single exception of whooping cough, all diseases reported re-ported showed considerable increases increas-es over last week. However, no new cases of smallpox or typhoid were reported. The number of new cases of pneumonia pneu-monia almost doubled, increasing from seven last week to thirteen in the week Just closed. This notable Increase was the occasion for a statement by Dr. McKay to the effect ef-fect that, at this time of year especially, es-pecially, everyone should be careful care-ful to avoid common colds, and to treat them promptly if contracted. This warning is timely, he says, because be-cause of the fact that most cases of pneumonia follow attacks of common com-mon colds. The number of new cases of common colds, Dr. McKay explained, ex-plained, is not now reported to the Utah State Board of Health. This, however, should not be taken as an indication of their minor importance, import-ance, he said. The common cold is a dangerous disease. Its occurrence occur-rence lowers resistance of the body, leaving one susceptible to a variety of disease-producing bacteria. Pneu- says, we have reports from areas where pneumonia serum has been used most and over the longest period per-iod of time that the fatalities from pneumonia have been greatly reduced. re-duced. It is extremely important, nevertheless, never-theless, that the physician be called early in every case of serious cold, especially if pneumonia is even remotely re-motely suspected. effective treatment in your case. The public should be warned that many widely-advertised "quick cures" for colds are actually harmful harm-ful to the system. During the year 1937, 334 Utahns died of pneumonia, mostly following common colds. Pneumonia accounted account-ed for more fatalities than all other communicable diseases combined. Fortunately, however, Dr. McKay |