INFANTILE PARALYSIS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23918, 9 April 1943, Page 6

INFANTILE PARALYSIS

Sir,—The infantile paralysis epidemic does not seem to be abating. Originally starting in the Christchurch districts, it has now spread to the country towns, notably Timaru-Temuka, etc. Yet every Sunday approximately 700 people (including children) travel on excursions from Christchurch to Ti“ maru in stuffy trains. These, in my opinion, should have been cancelled as soon as the epidemic started. It is not too late now, before this terrible disease increases.—Yours, !-f c £ IRST

April 7, 1943. [When this letter was referred yesterday to Dr. T. Fletcher Telford, Medical Officer of Health, he replied: ‘‘We took all reasonable measures to delay the passage of the disease through the city and the rest of this district, but it was not considered in the interests of the community that the department should go to such an extreme as cutting out- all communication between districts. To prohibit children travelling by train would not definitely prevent the spread of the distease to other districts than the one in which it originally occurred, as adults, in the course of travel, could be carriers of the disease. It is essen-* tial even now that parents and guardians responsible for the control or children should still exercise care, and, after school hours, keep them to the home circle, including that of their unmediate friends, where they know that the households are healthy. The precautions concerning the shutting down on the movements of children were purely to steady up and modify the type of the disease, and in this I am of opinion that the Health Department has been successful.”]