ttiltteonS AN ABSOtUU CURE fOR INFLUENZA & THROAT TROUBLES. CHEMISTS a s!ottS~l/6 & 2/S (NZ Truth, 13 July 1912). Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/3786197

December 1918

The influenza pandemic unfortunately reached New Zealand and has caused sickness and death the like of which has never been seen in this country. The brunt of the fight against the scourge fell, of course, on the medical profession, and we deplore the deaths of a considerable number of doctors who fell martyrs to their duty. We know the condition of affairs in Wellington, and suppose that they were typical of the country generally. The people were nervous and to some extent panic-stricken, and not without some reason; but their nervousness, we believe, was intensified by unduly alarming and occasionally sensational statements in the public press. There was far too much talking to the newspapers by the accredited leaders of the people, and the constant stressing of the shortage of doctors disturbed the public mind, and the applications for medical aid soon became so great that not four times the number of doctors at present in New Zealand could have satisfied all the demands made upon their services. The conditions were certainly very abnormal, but there seems to be a prevalent opinion that it is in some way the business of the Government to see that everybody can get the services of a doctor by right at any hour of the day or night simply by telephoning or ringing a door-bell. If this is to be the fulfilment of the aims of a State Medical Service we believe it to be beyond the power and financial resources of the Government to satiate the appetite of the people of New Zealand for medical attention, unless, indeed, taxation is enormously increased.

Two views are held in regard to the origin of the virulence of the disease in this epidemic—one that the ordinary mild influenza became virulent in this country, and the other view is that the virulent, septic, and pneumonic form was introduced from abroad, and incidentally could have been prevented by quarantine. We think that no medical man, at any rate in the light of after-events, will find it difficult to say which of the two theories is correct. There have been many recriminations—we make none, for we believe that the officials and others directly concerned did the best they could according to their judgment, and as a matter of fact the whole country was unprepared for the calamity that came upon it. In Wellington the Public Hospital had to refuse admission to influenza cases almost at the outset, and temporary hospitals were established and served a makeshift purpose. They were of great service, at all events, in checking the spread of the disease. A part-time district scheme of medical service was also established, and it tended to tranquilise the public mind, but people, of course, applied more to the doctors resident in the district in the usual way than to the so-called district health managers. An army of voluntary helpers sprang up almost in a night and, on the whole, did good service, but a complete lack of training and experience on the part of many of the women who were dressed and addressed as nurses produced a state of affairs by no means safe or commendable. The women who carried food to the sick, took care of children, and endured many a weary vigil at the bedsides of the sick in the temporary hospitals or in private houses did magnificent service.

Out of the disaster good will come if the matter is not left in the hands of politicians alone, who too often talk about what they will do, the great things they are going to do, and as a rule they do nothing. Slums should be quickly and steadily abolished and a comprehensive scheme of town-planning inaugurated.

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