POLIOMYELITIS DISEASE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14568, 12 January 1948, Page 3

POLIOMYELITIS DISEASE

DISCOVERY OF NEW TREATMENT

Claim By German

Doctor

Comments Of Tauranga

Practitioner

A report from overseas of the discovery of a new treatment for infantile paralysis is of interest in view of the prevailing epidemic of poliomyelitis in New Zealand. The report states that British Army medical officers helped in the discovery of the new treatment which is claimed to have saved the lives of 300 patients during the epidemic in Hamburg. Dr Gustav Olshausen, 60-year-old German country doctor, who invented the treatment, revealed this in an interview. The method consists of injections of grapesugar and liquid silver, and is only successful during the first four days of the disease, before the spinal cord has been affected. Dr Olshausen named his injection “Argophan-Olshausen.” He says he discovered it over a year ago, with the help of British Army doctors-, who gave him facilities with hospital treatment and in obtaining instruments. He explained that before the appearance of actual papalysis there is an increase in the body’s liquid pressure which influences the circulation in several brain and spinal cord areas. “If I succeed in reducing this pressure by a quick injection of Argophan-Olshausen, the paralysis will be halted in about an hour,” he said. Dr Olshausen claimed that he had saved his 16-year-old daughter, whose legs were paralysed. She had been treated without success by another doctor in his absence, he said. After one injection of Argophan - Olshausen, she completely recovered the use of her legs.

A 17-year-okl girl whose whole body was paralysed except for the left arm, was able a few minutes after injection slowly to move her head. Three hours later the paralysis had gone. A 23-year-old woman, whose legs were paralysed, was up about an hour after injection, he said.

Confirmation Lacking

When the new treatment was referred to a Tauranga member of the medical profession for his comments by a representative of the Bay of Plenty Times, ho explained that he had not heard or read of the Olshausen treatment in either the British Medical Journal nor in the current American journals dealing with medicine and pediatrics.

He pointed out that in the report the essential item of treatment was the decrease in the pressure of the cerebro-spinal fluid. It was appreciated, lie stated, that an increase in this pressure was secondary to the infection with a virus affecting certain nerve cells in the cerebrospinal system, but the essential disease would then not be touched —the infection of the nerve cells. He concluded by stating that the three cases mentioned in the article were not enough to judge the merits of the treatment.