POLIOMYELITIS STILL A DANGER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22907, 29 March 1949, Page 4

POLIOMYELITIS STILL A DANGER

rjfMlE Department of Health has seen fit to warn the public ’of the continued prevalence of poliomyelitis, and from that it may be taken that precautions are still necessary. Because of important events at home and overseas in recent months there has been a tendency to forget this dread disease which goes on claiming victims. The fact that cases are occurring at approximately the same rate as during the past year has been overlooked. There is a case in our own community, the first for some time. Much mystery still surrounds this disease. The present outbreak differs from previous epidemics in both the age distribution and the degree of paralysis. Figures compiled by the department show that of 303 cases in New Zealand up to March 31,1948, in the first phase of the present epidemic, 211 were under 15 years, but there were 92 over that age. Of 275 patients, 18 died but 183 did not have any paralysis and were expected to make complete recoveries. At the time the report was written it was too early to determine the amount of paralysis that would be permanently suffered by the remaining 74 patients.

Not only has a surprising number of adults been afflicted by the disease, but its course has been unusually prolonged. Previously, epidemics have been spread over about a year, but this one has already lasted over 16 months. In the past, too, it has been associated with long periods of hot weather; this summer throughout New Zealand has been more changeable than usual. Official investigations are still in progress and the report will not be published for a few months. In the meantime, a report on research in Auckland has been made public. The early, intensive stage of the epidemic there was preceded and accompanied by large numbers of minor illnesses in the general population, and the incidence of these “suspected cases” followed a similar pattern to those diagnosed as positive. Today, it is reported, diagnosis is still complicated by the presence of many minor illnesses. , Auckland’s experience, too, is that the closing of the srehools early last year was of considerable value in combating the epidemic, but today less importance is attached to such a measure. Rather, the emphasis is on personal hygiene especially among children.

While the present period remains an anxious one for all parents, the health authorities state that it is not an occasion for alarm. There is also some comfort, in the statement by a Health Department officer in Wellington that although he could not prophesy how long the present epidemic would last, he would be surprised if it persisted beyond the middle, of the year.