ADVICE TO PARENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 149, 21 December 1936, Page 14

ADVICE TO PARENTS

CARRIAGE OF DISEASE

A warning to parents not to use any of the suggested remedies for infantile paralysis without taking medical advice was issued by the DirectorGeneral of 'Health (Dr. H. M. Watt) in the course of an interview with a "Post" representative today.

. Dr. Watt said that his best advice to parents was that' they should isolate themselves as much as possible in their own homes. It had to be remembered that adults as well as children could carry and spread the disease, and thus the suggestion that children should be prevented from leaving Dunedin would be ineffective if adults were allowed to travel. The period of incubation fixed by the Health Department was fourteen days, and this was regarded as a safe mar-": gin, as the disease was generally manifest well within that period. Dr. "Watt said that parents before using any suggested preventive or remedy for infantile paralysis should consult a doctor, as the various treatments put forth were of very doubtful value and in some cases distinctly harmful. All the information at the disposal of, the Department was being incorporated in a bulletin for circulation among medical practitioners. The Department had a quantity o£ convalescent serum available for distribution, but opinion was divided as to its efficacy. STEAMER BOOKINGS. Inquiries made today at the offices of the Union Steam Ship Co. and the Anchor Shipping and Foundry Company revealed that during the last two weeks a number of passages have been cancelled on both the Wellington-Lyt-telton and Wellington-Nelson runs, parents evidently being afraid that children visiting the South .Island run a risk of contracting infantile paralysis owing to the epidemic. The number of cancellations has not been so great during the last week, since it has been realised that the outbreak has been confined to Dunedin, and there havo been no bookings cancelled on this account on the Nelson run since Thursday last.