INFANTILE PARALYSIS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 6, 8 January 1925, Page 11

INFANTILE PARALYSIS

PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES

ADVICE OF HEALTH DEPARTMENT.

During the past three weeks statements of the Health Department as to the nature of infantile paralysis and the precautionary measures urged in order to prevent its spread have been published m "The Post." As notifications of suspected cases still continue in the city and suburban districts, the Department has issued the following statement, embodying the main recommendations of medical science with regard to the means to be taken in combatting this mysterious but distressing disease:— "We are being asked with increasing frequency whether there is any special danger to children visiting Wellington on account of the prevalence of'lnfantile paralysis: and similar anxiety fe ex-' pressed regarding the risks run by children now living in our city and suburbs'. "Both questions call for a repetition of practically the same answer— Avoid as far as possible any unnecessary close association ol children outside the family circle. From, the standpoint of public health it is equally encumbent on us to deprecate children being taken unnecessarily from a region where the disease U epidemic to one which is •comparatively immune for the time being as it is to insist on the wrong bringing of a child from an immune to an infected area. Indeed, the greater public wrong arises from carelessly causing the disease to be carried from place to place. "As regards Wellington and suburbs, at.the present moment we cannot too strongly impress on parents and guardians that the one and only way to put a check on the further occurrence and spread of the disease is for all those who are responsible to do every thing, in their power to keep children out of crowds and assemblages of all sorts, until the epidemic has passed, which is sure to take place in a short time. Wellington district happens \~aow to be the main focus, but, as has happened before, some other centre of population may yet show an equal or larger number of cases. A hopeful point in this connection is the fact that where a locality has been hard hit by one epidemic the tendency is for such area to suffer Jess seriously in the next periodic visitation. The following figures are interesting and higldy suggestive :— "The present . epidemic commenced early in December, 1924. The incidence week by week has been as follows: — Week ending: Ist December, 3; Bth December, 6; 15th December 9; 22nd December, 9; 29th December, 11; sth January, 19; sth to 7th January, 9. "Total cases of infantile paralysis in New Zealand notified from 1915 to 1922: 1915, 10; 1916, 1016; 1917, 54; 1918, 6; 1919, 11; 1920, 46; 1921, 267; 1922, 98. "All the cases so far appear to have originated in the Wellington health district The above figures include for the week ending 29th December two cases iv Auckland, and for week ending^ sth January, one case in Dunedin. Thess three cases have since been traced to Wellington. "In the great epidemic of 1916 the distribution of cases was us follows :—■ Health Districts :. Auckland, 546; Wellington, Hawkcs Bay, Nelson, Marlborough, 382; Canterbury, Westland, 55; Olago, Southland, 25. "Infantile paralysis is generally and typically a disease of late summer and uarly autumn. "Monthly incidence of cases in the 1916 New Zealand epidemic was :—January, 119; February, 319; March, 320: April, 167; May, 44; June,-19; average for the remaining six months, 5. EXTBA CARE OF CHILDREN. "TJie immediate cause of infantile paralysis is a specific microbe which lodges mainly in the noee, and is spread by coughing, kissing, etc.. in the same way aii whooping cough or any such infectious disease. pwing to the frequency of cases traced in New Zealand to residence at the seaside some people have the idea that the Bea air is .a factor in causation, but this is not so. Children assembled at the seaside in New Zealand for the Christinas and New Year holidays are liable to acquire certain epiI demic diseases just as they ran special risks by going to "the pictures," Sunday Schools, "parties," or assemblies of any kind, or when travelling by land or sea. "It should not need to be said that infantile paralysis, like any other microbic disease, is far more liable to attack children who are not in the best of health, though it may attack a given child who is in perfect health. The moral is that at the present tune parents and guardians in Wellington, especially, should spare no pains to ensure the best of health to their children by keeping them as much as possible in tha open air, by having open windows and pure air day and night, and by conforming to - all other requirements of robust health-such as proper food and feeding habits, regularity, plenty of exercise, and ample time for rest and fcfof Hke^h. Vr iT^ il€? Director of Child Welfare.'' ' S>