completely
disinfected.

INFLUENZA: LA GRIPPE

The most important feature with reference to influenza in children is
its very active tendency to develop complications. These complications
generally affect the respiratory tract. So we find in children suffering
from grippe an easy disposition to get bronchitis or broncho-pneumonia.
The younger the child the greater the danger.

The disease itself, so long as it remains an uncomplicated influenza, is
not of much importance or severity. The lesson to be learned, therefore,
is to treat the disease with respect and take every precaution to avoid
the possibility of developing a complication.

La Grippe is a highly contagious disease. It prevails epidemically, and
after an active epidemic it may remain in the vicinity for a number of
years. It is more frequently seen in the late winter months and early
spring. The poison of the disease clings to clothing and apartments as
well as to railroad and street cars. The germ is found in the sputum and
in the nasal secretions.

Sneezing is one of its symptoms and it is one of the ways by which the
disease is spread around. Children should never be brought near an adult
suffering from influenza. One attack does not render the patient immune
to a subsequent attack as is the case with most of the contagious
diseases. The reverse is the rule with La Grippe because one attack
favors the development of another attack. It is a common experience for
many people to have influenza every winter or spring.

Symptoms.--If a child "catches" grippe, it becomes quite sick
abruptly. There is usually chilliness, pains in the muscles all over the
body, more or less fever, sometimes nausea and vomiting. If the attack
is a more severe one, the prostration is more marked, the temperature
higher and the signs of shock and poisoning of the system are more in
evidence. A child a few months old can get influenza so severely as to
cause collapse and death in thirty-six hours. As a rule the type of
grippe most common in infancy is of a very mild character. It lasts
about a week. Children may be a little slow in convalescing and it may
be three or four weeks before they regain their health.

Complications.--As has been intimated, the most frequent complication
is bronchitis and the most fatal one is broncho-pneumonia.

A congestion of the entire mucous membrane of the respiratory tract,
producing a nasal discharge, a sore and inflamed throat, pains and