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Plenty of Fluids. But by that time, Needles, a tiny California desert town on the edge of the Dead Mountains, had suffered the first confirmed mainland outbreak of Hong Kong flu, which struck some 500 people after travelers and servicemen on leave returned home from the Pacific. Since then, Hong Kong cases have been confirmed in Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado and North Carolina. Hardest hit was Puer to Rico, with almost 55,000 cases in an epidemic that reached its peak in late October. The heaviest mortality rate was that of Riverview, Philadelphia's home for the indigent, where 266 inmates were stricken and nine died.
Because influenza is seldom fatal for a person who is in generally good health before he catches it, some authorities have described Hong Kong flu as a "mild illness." That is highly misleading. All types of influenza virus are about equal in their ability to cause severe illness. What varies enormously—and with it, the ultimate severity of the disease—is the individual victim's constitution and resistance. Some otherwise healthy people are especially susceptible to disabling illness that lasts several weeks. Others can throw off the flu after a week or so, with perhaps half that time spent in bed on a high fluid intake. No medication does much good, except aspirin to ease the discomfort and help lower the fever.
Winter of the Flu. Ailing youngsters and oldsters run a considerably greater risk that the infection will move down from the upper respiratory tract (mouth, nose, throat and windpipe) to the lungs, causing a form of viral pneumonia, or that the viral infection will make the lungs prey to bacterial pneumonia. For this last complication, antibiotics are prescribed—sometimes in advance, in the hope of preventing it.
Aside from vaccination, the only prophylactic against any strain of Asian flu is amantadine, a drug marketed by Du Pont as Symmetrel. It is given to the elderly and infirm after one member of the household has come down with flu but before they develop it themselves. It is ineffective after illness has begun, and many physicians question whether its safety for those of all ages and sexes has been sufficiently proved. No matter how widely the new vaccine is distributed or how fast it is used, this is going to be the winter of the flu. And Hong Kong flu, at that.