Influenza and pneumonia mortality in a group of 90 cities in the United States, August 1935-March 1943, with a summary for August 1920-March 1943
Gover, M.
Public Health Reports 58(28): 1033-1061
1943
ISSN/ISBN: 0033-3549 DOI: 10.2307/4584522Document Number: 263402
Weekly mortality from influenza and pneumonia is probably the best available measure of the occurrence and extent of influenza epidemics. The number of reported cases of influenza is markedly deficient and at the time of an epidemic the increase in reported cases frequently lags behind the increase in deaths from influenza and pneumonia. Sickness absenteeism among industrial workers shows an excess in the third and fourth quarters of 1942 over the same period of 1941. The excess for pneumonia was 50 and 138%, for influenza and grippe 40 and 54%, and for bronchitis 12 and 27% in the 3d and 4th quarters, respectively. Reported cases of pneumonia for New York and Massachusetts remain practically level from 1930 to 1940. Pneumonia incidence in the U. S. Army increased during 1935 to 1940. Among industrial workers also, pneumonia morbidity has increased during the 8 yrs. 1935 to 1942. Pneumonia case fatality, however, has declined since 1933 in the U. S. Army. The report for 1940 states that starting in 1935 there was a greater use of oxygen and serum therapy; the use of sulfa drugs was begun in 1938 and increased in 1939. Among those dying from lobar pneumonia, 84.3% had received chemotherapy and 11.5% had received both chemotherapy and serum. A record of weekly mortality from influenza and pneumonia in a group of about 90 cities in the U. S. was reported upon. This record has been brought up to 1943. Since the summer of 1937, pneumonia mortality shows a decline of approximately 40% (from a rate of 110 to 69 per 100,000). The decline has occurred in all geographic sections. Epidemics of minor intensity occurred in 5 of the 8 winters since Aug. 1935. Three of these epidemics were practically Nation-wide, 1935-36, 1936-37, and 1940-41. The epidemics of the winters of 1938-39 and 1939-40 were confined to 4 or 5 of the 9 geographic sections of the country. The year 1942-43 thus far shows no epidemic excess in any of the sections. A method of computing a normal seasonal curve of influenza and pneumonia mortality is described in detail. The method for deriving this curve is admittedly rough.