Word: influenza
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Spotty by Cities. The geographic spottiness of the outbreaks confused public health authorities, and laboratory workers had the tedious job of identifying submicroscopic viruses in the laboratory to decide which of them were responsible for a particular patient's illness. The Asian A-2 strain of influenza virus has been identified in enough cases to convict it as the chief culprit in North Carolina's heavy outbreak of flu in January. The virus apparently spread to adjacent Virginia and South Carolina, and the University of Georgia had a local incident. Farther west, there were confirmed outbreaks at Great...
There are three such viruses, distinguished by numbers.* Parainfluenza 1 was first called Sendai virus, after the Japanese city where it was originally isolated. It is close enough kin to the true flu viruses to have once been called influenza D. It has now been found around the world. At one time or another, nearly every child in the U.S. gets infected with paraflu 1, and the illness is most likely to be severe in the very young. The resulting antibody may last a lifetime, but gives only partial immunity: an adult can be reinfected with the same virus, though...
...Medical scientists themselves have added to the confusion with an overlap of names. In 1892 a German researcher thought the cause of influenza was a bacillus, and named it Haemophilus influenzae. That bacillus is now known to cause infections in some flu victims, but only coincidentally. In 1922 a related bacillus, found in the throats of both cats and man, was named Haemophilus parainfluenzae, but has nothing to do with diseases now known to be caused by viruses...
...added that the University has just received a new supply of influenza vaccine, and recommended that persons over 45 and sufferers from chronic heart or lung trouble be especially sure to get flu shots...
Experiments have not yet been completed in Health Center laboratories to determine whether the local influenza germ is the A2 variety, known as "Asian." (It was called "Spanish" near the turn of the century.) When this is done, later in the week, the University will report the situation to the Massachusetts Department of Health...