INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 11 March 1926, Page 4

INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

FEW CASES REPORTED

FIFTEEN IN SIX MONTHS,

The number of cases of infantile paralysis in the Dominion,notified from October 1 to March 1 last, the months the disease is most prevalent, was 15, with four deaths. This is very much below the average.' The notifications of cases and deaths for the past six years were as follow:

With the increasing knowledge that this disease is not only infectious, but is conveyed l by personal contact, the health authorities are showing a tendeney to take more active ‘measures as Jr" regards notification and hospital treat- ■ ment of patients, which, in addition to ensuring skilled attention, secures tlie isolation of the patient. In the epidemic of last year the Department took these steps to. a degree in advance of the practice of most other countries. It is recognised by medical authorities that- immunity is acquired from one attack of this disease. There is also strong circumstantial evidence, in support of a common belief that with increasing age tb e susceptibility of the disease diminishes. The writers of articles in British medical journals have asserted that New Zealand is the envy of many other countries in having, so many public hospitals, and attention has, been drawn to the fact that the members of the medica l profession in New Zealand have acquired the. habit of promptly sen diner infectious eases tor hospital. In the last epidemic a very great majority of the children attacked by infantile paradysis were at once sent to hospital, and there, particularly in the large centres, they received the very best of treatment, including the use of serum' made from the blood, in many cases voluntarily surrendered, of former victims of the - disease.

Year. Cases. Deaths 1920 : 58 9 1921 231 9 1922 349 8 1923 197 0 1924 (1 month epidemic) 99 ic 1925 (epidemic) 1319 171