INFANTILE PARALYSIS

Evening Star, Issue 21037, 26 February 1932, Page 15

INFANTILE PARALYSIS

A NUMBER OF GASES [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, February 25. The Minister of Health (Hon. J. A. Young), when asked tho position today regarding infantile paralysis, stated that, although the disease could not be described as epidemic, yet it was more widely distributed and more prevalent than at any time since 1925. For the week ended February 22, for instance, a total of eight cases and two deaths had been reported. These cases had all occurred in the South Island, six of them in the North Canterbury health district and one each in tho Otago and Southland health districts. The cases, so far as could be determined, had ho contact or association with one another, so it would appear that the virus of the disease at the present time was fairly widely distributed throughout the community.

The medical officers of the department had informed him, stated the Minister, that parents would be well advised to consider the possibility of this disease where any of the household, particularly the children, contracted an illness marked by feverish conditions, headache, or gastric upset. The department urged that patients exhibiting such symptoms should be strictly isolated and their eating utensils sterilised by boiling pending the calling in of the necessary medical advice. The use of a serum offered the most encouraging results in the early stages of the illness, but if expert medical attention was delayed too long the chances of recovery would be seriously jeopardised. The Minister added that he had asked the department to issue a detailed statement for the guidance of the public.