OUR BABIES

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 24 January 1925, Page 14

OUR BABIES

(By “HYGEIA.”)

Published under the auspices ot the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society). “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom. ’ INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

As several cases of infantile paralysis have been notified in tlio Wellington district, and there seemed a danger that the disease might assume epidemic form, the following communication to the public was issued by the DirectorGeneral of Health and the Director of Child Welfare. . If parents will co-operate with the Health Department and follow the advice given, we feel sure that the disease will soon die out. THE COMMUNICATION.

Wo are being asked with increasing frequency whether there is any special danger to children visiting Wellington on account of the prevalence of infantile paralysis, and similar anxiety is expressed regarding the risks i un by children now living in our city und suburbs. Both questions call for practcally the same answer:

Avoid as far as possible any unnecessary close association of children outside the family circle From the standpoint of public health it is as incumbent on us to deprecate children being taken unnecessarily from a region where the disease is epidemic to one which is comparatively immune for the time being, as it is to insist on the wrong of bringing 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. Wellington the Present Centre. 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 further occurence and spread of the disease is for all those v.no are responsible to do everytiimg in their power to keep children out or crowds and assemblages of ail sorts until tlie epidemic has passed, which is sure to take place in a short time. Wellington district iiappens now to be the main l'ocus, but, as has happened before, some other centre of population may yet show an equal or larger number of cases. A hopeiui point in this connection is the fact that where a locality lias been hard hit by one epidemic the tendency is for such area to suffer less seriously in the next, periodic visitation. The following ugures are interesting and highly suggestive. Total cases of infantile paralysis in New Zealand notified from 1.915 to 1922: 1915, 10; 1916, 1016; 1917, 54; 1918, 6; 1919, 11; 1920, 46; 1921, 267; 1922, 98. The present epidemic commenced early in December, 1924. The incidence week by week lias been as follows: Week ending December 1,3; December 8,6; December 15, 9; December 22, 9; December 29, 11; January 5 to 7, 9. All the cases so far appear to have originated in the Wellington health district. The above figures include for the week ending December 29 two cases in Auckland, and for week ending January 5 one case in Dunedin. These three cases have since been traced to Wellington. In the epidemic of 1916 the distribution of cases was as folloivs: Health districts. —Auckland : 516. Wellington, Hawke’s Bay, Nelson, Marlborough, 382. Canterbury-West-land: 65. Otago-Southland : 25. Infantile paralysis is generally and typically a disease of late summer and burly autumn.

Monthly incidence of cases in the 1016 New Zealand epidemic was: January .\ US February 319 March 320 April 167 May ! 44 June 19 Average for the remaining six months ... 6 CauseySpecifie Microbe. The immediate cause" of infantile paralysis is a specific microbe, which lodges mainly in the nose and throat, and is spread by coughing, kissing, etc., in the same way as whooping cough or any such infectious disease. Owing to the frequency of cases traced in New Zealand to residence at the seaside some lieople have the idea that sea air is a factor! in causation; but this is not so. Children assembled at the seaside in New Zealand for the Christmas and New Year holidays are liable to acquire certain epidemic diseases, just as they run special risks bv going to the pictures or assemblies of any kind,- or when travelling by land or sea.

Keep the Children Fit. It should not need to be said that infantile paralysis, like any other microbe 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 time parents and guardians, in Wellington especially, should spare no pains to ensure the best of health to tlieir children by keeping them as rgueh as possible jn the 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 sleep. The majority of cases of infantile paralysis occur in the first five years of life —i.e.. before the ordinary school ago. Adults are rarely attacked, .but are liable to act as “carriers” after being associated with the disease.