POLIOMYELITIS IN U.S.

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28981, 24 August 1959, Page 11

POLIOMYELITIS IN U.S.

24 New Cases In New York State

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) ALBANY (New York), August 23 The State Health Department announced that 24 new cases of poliomyelitis, eight of them paralytic. were reported in New York State during the week ending August 20. The number was the largest reported for any week since 1956. In the corresponding period in 1958, 12 cases of poliomyelitis, five of them paralytic, were reported. From January 1 to August 20, 95 cases of poliomyelitis have been reported, compared with 53 last year and an average of 517 for the years from 1951 to 1953. Fiftyeight of this year’s cases have been paralytic, compared with 33 for the same period last year, and an average of 285 for the years from 1951 until 1953.

Only one of last week’s eight New York paralytic cases had had three shots of the Salk antipoliomyelitis vaccine. So far this year, 18 of the 58 cases of paralytic poliomyelitis in New York have occurred in persons having at least three shots of the Salk anti-poliomyelitis vaccine. In Boston, the Massachusetts State Health Department reported that Massachusetts had its first poliomyelitis death of the year last night and warned that this year’s outbreak would be the worst since the 1955 epidemic. The man who died had not received any vaccine.