Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 68, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 March 1920 — SPEED OF EPIDEMIC VARIES [ARTICLE]

SPEED OF EPIDEMIC VARIES

Diseases Travel According to the Modes of Transportation in the Regions Afflicted. The speed at which an epidemic—whether It be of influenza or any other infectious disease —spreads de pends upon the rapidity of the usual means of transportation. In his presidential address at the congress of American Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. Simon Flexner said: “In eastern Russia and Turkestan Influenza spreads with the pace of a caravan, In Europe and America with the speed of an expfess train, and in the world at large with the rapidity of an ocean liner; and if one project forward the outcome of the> means of intercommunication of the near future we may predict that the next pandemic, should one arise, will extend with the swiftness of the airship. Moreover. ntft only? Jit this rate of spread determined by the nature of the transportation facilities of the region or the era, but towns and villages, mainland and island, are invaded early or late or preserved entirely from attack according as they lie within or without the, avenues of approach or are protected by inaccessibility, as in instances of remote mountain settlements* and of Islands distant from the ocean lanes or frozen in during winter periods.” x..