Flu Again

Influenza and related ills had millions of Americans by the throat last week. Since flu is not a disease that must be reported to health authorities, no accurate tally of the victims was possible. But it was estimated that 2,000,000 had been stricken in the Los Angeles area since New Year's, that 1,000,000 were laid up last week (500,000 of them in the city of Los Angeles, an equal number in surrounding communities). Across the nation, outbreaks were spotty. Boston reported up to 20% of schoolchildren absent. Pittsburgh was hard hit. Cleveland had 254 teachers out (5% of the force), and many schools had 15% or more of pupils absent. In Columbus and Detroit, the flu wave appeared to be breaking. In several Texas cities--Houston, San Antonio and Austin --the worst seemed over, but Brownsville and El Paso were in the thick of it.

Deaths from influenza and bacterial pneumonia (hard to separate, because one so often complicates the other) were about 50% above average for January's first half, reported the U.S. Communicable Disease Center. In seven states and the District of Columbia the active flu virus was identified as the mutant Asian strain, A2-57. In seven other states the same strain was suspect, but not yet convicted on laboratory evidence.

In Los Angeles, where common illnesses unaccountably take uncommon forms, the epidemic was at first widely described as "Q flu" because of the question as to its nature. Virologists soon proved that the virus was no mystery agent--merely the familiar Asian strain. But the ill-health picture in the area was complicated by other factors: the semiannual epidemic of "Spencer's disease," as local doctors like to call unexplained outbreaks of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, and a second type of upper respiratory illness, milder than flu, presumably caused by a virus of a different family. One or another of Los Angeles' varied plagues knocked out such widely assorted performers as Alfred Hitchcock, Lilli Palmer, Debbie Reynolds and Marilyn Monroe.

Further outbreaks of flu and similar diseases, and especially Asian flu, are to be expected all over the U.S. in the next few weeks, said Surgeon General Leroy Burney of the U.S. Public Health Service. But he saw no cause to fear an epidemic as vast or as severe as that of 1957. (Main reason: so many people have had Asian flu and therefore are now immune.) Dr. Burney recommended vaccination for workers in the health professions (because they are unusually exposed to infection) and such essential industries as transportation and utilities; also for pregnant women and victims of heart or lung diseases; and for all over 55 with any chronic ailment.

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