INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 30, 5 February 1925, Page 4

INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

The latest pmiiuiinccineiits by experts, including I In' official repori i<( the dis oils.-iun at last night's meeting of the British Medical Association leaven ii- no further advanced in knowledge or treatment of the pri'Miiling epidemic. A death-rate of 22 per i-enl is nearly eipial to the diphtheria records previous lo ihe disci,very of antitoxin. The para lysis which frequently followed nil neks of diphtheria was of a far more Hoot ing nature than that of infantile paralysis, but in both cases it is slated thill infection comes from ihe locality ..f I lie air passages. Tin- -i curious ami uncommon feature in infaiCile piiraly-is is the fact that children in g I condition and sound health are mostly the \ictims. With regard to treatment, our medic-iil men u~scr' that serum injection is "apparently" successful in some cases, and this is not a hopeful statement considering that cases left to Nature sometimes make gnod recoveries, unci some thing beyond "apparent" success i< essential in any remedy in which the profession and the public can place their faith. That Ml per cent of local patients are in hospital gives at least ihe comforting thought I hut ih.,.-,- surviving Will receive the besl possible treat incut ami (hat ~,,iit inuously for the following loss of muscular power. Wild suggestions as i., |>ossible causes have une good effect in that they se: us searching for errors in our way of living unci defects in our sanitation: but in the treatment in; present definitely experimental I those whose training null ex|ierionoe seldom destroys I heir "ifTec--tion and sympathy for children ,-uu 1„----trusted to make every possible eiTort to cure. More important In the eoinniunitv than t.he cure of those already alllicted will be the discovery of preventive measures, and it is here that we look to the bacteriologist for patient investigation and painstaking and concent,a, e,l study. The infectious nature of the disease is not disproved hy our knowledge Hint only one member of a lar"e family may Lo afTocted. for this wTll happen in diseases more definitely con,, niuiiicable. lie! ter facilities f,, r research arc needed. At least on,, first-class bacteriologist, wi.lb an adequate staff. should lie appointed to give his whole time lo the study ~ft 1,,. disease for which, alas, tliere is abundant material.