Physical and nervous exhaustion should be avoided by paying due regard
to rest, exercise, physical and mental labor, and hours of sleep. The
evidence is conclusive, however, that youth and bodily vigor do not
guarantee immunity to the disease.
The nature of the preventive measures practicable and necessary in any
given community depends in a large part upon the nature of the community
itself, as to population characteristics, industries, and so on, and
upon the stage and type of the epidemic curve. For example, the measures
to be adopted in a purely rural community would not be practicable or
desirable in a large metropolitan area, nor would the measures desirable
and feasible at the beginning or end of an epidemic be found those best
adapted for the intervening period. The committee has found it
impossible, therefore, to lay down any rules for the guidance of all
health officials alike in preventive measures. The most it has been able
to do has been to state certain general principles that in its judgment
should underlie administrative measures for the prevention of influenza.
The application of these principles to the needs of any particular
community must be left for determination by the officers of that
community who are responsible for the protection of its public health.
The preventive measures recommended by the committee are as follows:
A. Efficient organization to meet the emergency, providing for a
centralized co-ordination and control of all resources.
B. Machinery for ascertaining all facts regarding the epidemic: