PARALYSIS STAGE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22512, 16 December 1947, Page 8

PARALYSIS STAGE

FEW N Z. CASES SO FAR AID FROM U.S. IF NEEDED (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 16. The Kenny treatment was necessary only in cases of poliomyelitis in which there were definite signs of paralysis m a patient, said .Sister Gwen Dryden, of the T. A. Duncan Hospital for neuromuscular diseases at Silver Stream, in an interview. None of the cases in Wellington, or for that matter in most other parts of the Dominion, had so far shown any definite signs of paralysis and it was unnecessary for them to be transferred to her hospital when they were being quite capably looked after by those medical practitioners in whose hands they were at present. Sister Dryden said in any case she would tour New Zealand with Sister Kenny during the latter’s present visit, and as she herself was the only person at her hospital acquainted with _ the special treatment, any new patients could not be treated in her absence.

In the coming months if the epidemic did show a grave and more widespread increase and the demand for the special Kenny treatment became very great, it would be necessary to bring specialists in the treatment to this country from overseas. Such persons would probably be available from the United States.

It might be wondered why others from the nursing profession in New Zealand could not be taught to apply Sister Kenny’s treatment in any emergency. but two years was the minimum period in which a person could be taught to administer the treatment efficiently, she added.