Читать книгу Studies on Epidemic Influenza: Comprising Clinical and Laboratory Investigations - University of Pittsburgh. School of Medicine - Страница 12

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In all descriptions of the disease the duration is spoken of as “several days, more or less,” “a three-day fever,” or “a seven-day fever.” Because of the careful supervision under which the soldiers were kept while in the barracks an excellent opportunity was afforded to note the duration of uncomplicated cases. The shortest time observed was 1 day, and the longest 10 days. The average duration of temperature among 87 soldiers without inflammation of the lungs or other certain complications was 6⅓ days. Among the civilians the shortest time of pyrexia was a few hours only, while the longest in 73 male patients was 14 days, and in 84 female patients was 16 days. The average length of pyrexia in the males was 4⅝ days, and in the females was 5¼ days.

While the very definite clinical description of the former epidemics of a so-called uncomplicated influenza seems to have served satisfactorily to the present time, the laboratory studies and the possibly more thorough clinical observations which have been carried out recently in this epidemic make it necessary to present anew the whole disease picture of influenza, with the hope of suggesting a classification more in accord with our present knowledge of the disease.