SLEEPING SICKNESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 192, 15 August 1925, Page 17

SLEEPING SICKNESS.

A DEVASTATING DISEASE

: -To be unprepared for the; invasion of ■any.-infective form of disease is to ensure the loss of many lives. When the severe • epidemic of influenza and its pneumonic' sequelae brought panic and' despair to countless New Zealand homes, there was a general outcry against the authorities, responsible, for, the public health, and a series of inquiries showed that' had the invasion been anticipated the effect of. the disease might have been greatly reduced, if not altogether kept from our shores. Infantile paralysis appears to have been as an epidemic— no more than a recrudescence of a trouble long latent in our midst, with symptoms so slight, or so obscure, that scores*' of unrecognised carriers were each a .possible focus • from. which the disease might at any time—granted favou^able , ;ci^cum i, stances—rextend. There have,.heen, of late years, ;one; or two instances; in which an early alarm -'has- seemed; to. trouble, and/ss. '' eihig^tion;;:... tO y country increases it is excusable to be watchful, short of alarm.' '

. It is reported from London that the disease known .as encephalitis lethar-j .•gicai'.-qr. sleepy siskness, ;ior_ epidemic en-; cephalitis, ia < rapidly* spreading over 'During 1924' i&>is • estimated that the number of cases totalled 50,000 in England and Wales., It-is not neces-i sarily fatal, but mortality; rate; and its after effects are tragic ■in [ the extreme. The epidemic form of this l disease is: referred, to-as. a "new ; " T dise.a«.er 1 |of[: which' the.- specific- responsible have-not yet been- isolated; Tlhe, "infection" is probably 'due'to' the combined attack of more than, one variety of bacteria, as was the. case .with pneumonic influenza.- ''.'•'.'

The symptoms include stiffness of the I muscles, extreme slowness of- movement, and : drowsiness- Should the patient: recover from the acute attack- it is usual i .for a train of.nervous symptoms -,*toi 'follow, even affecting the respiration, j temper, arid general, mentality. Children, I previously , normalf irritarae;<j stiiieful,' untruthful, and ■ guiljfej'ofj '"wanton--unaccountable mischief, f itT'isTl believed that the .disease promoting' micro-organisms are allied, to those of. Infantile paralysis, inasmuch as • they! have a peculiar ■ .and - particular selective action on. the nervous system, j In mild cases • the disease is some-j times-diagnosed as influenza, as the! symptoms are as misleading as those ofjirtrairtile paralysis, until r 7 lt. tb^ceep' out/for ailing children, and "for those who "Come down, to;. the sea. in ships," j to. pass- a more:'than Usually exacting examination at our port. -