Drifting Flu

INFECTIOUS DISEASES

When a man's wife called the boss last week and said he couldn't get to work because he was in bed with the flu, chances were that she was telling the truth. Across the U.S., the flu season was reaching a peak. In the New York metropolitan area, most of the illness seemed to be of a mild variety caused by still unidentified viruses; New Eng land, Georgia and Florida had spotty outbreaks caused by Type B influenza virus. California, hardest hit, was in the throes of an epidemic of Asian Type-A flu. And Californians were spreading the virus in their Nevada playgrounds, Lake Tahoe, Reno and Las Vegas.

Infants & Oldsters. California's epidemic got rolling in the schools -- among youngsters who had not developed any immunity because many of them were living more sheltered, preschool lives when the state had its last major Asian-flu attack four years ago. In Los Ange les, up to 300,000 children and 3,500 teachers were out; 90 public and eleven parochial schools gave up and closed.

Said County School Superintendent" Clinton Conroy Trillingham: "This epidemic has hit the schools harder than any I can remember in 24 years." Ad missions to Los Angeles' huge County General Hospital ran 25% to 30% above average. The police force and fire brigades were decimated.

Orange County was almost as hard-hit; then the epidemic spread through Santa Cruz and Santa Clara to the Bay Area and Sacramento, until an estimated 4,000,000 Californians were laid low with fever, headache, cough, sore throat and aching muscles. Inevitably, in a few cases the flu led to pneumonia, mostly among infants or oldsters whose health was poor to begin with. Among the other victims was Susan Ann Lombardo, 26, the bandleader's niece. There was no way to tell when the California epidemic would pass its peak.

Wild Strains. The U.S. Public Health Service had long ago recommended widespread vaccinations and predicted major outbreaks this year of both Type A influenza, which runs in a three-year cycle, and Type B, which runs in two-or four-year cycles. The Communicable Disease Center expected Type A to miss the Eastern states, or brush them only lightly, because they had outbreaks last year. So far, the C.D.C. has been correct. In the East, influenza B has attacked mostly the young and the old, with only a modest increase in resultant pneumonia. The Asian flu attacks all age groups indiscriminately, which explains the epidemic spread in California.

As for vaccines, the C.D.C. now believes that the viruses' antigenic properties "drift," or change slightly, and that the current wild strains have drifted away from those used in the vaccine now available. If the change is not too great, the vaccine should still offer substantial protection. Next year, the vaccine makers will hurry to catch the drift.

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