INFANTILE PARALYSIS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 19 December 1936, Page 15

INFANTILE PARALYSIS

* PREVENTIVE STEPS

GENERAL PRECAUTIONS SHOULD BE TAKEN HEALTH DEPARTMENT STATEMENT (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, 19th December. Measures to prevent the spread of an epidemic of infantile paralysis are general rather than particular. The Health Department advised an ordinary healthy open-air life with avoidance of crowds of any description, since the disease spreads by personal contact as does the common cold. People, especially children, should also avoid excesses of any kind such as: — .

1. Undue exposure to the sun. 2. Over-prolonged bathing leading to chilling. 3. Over-eating. 4. Too short hours of.sleep and rest. Any of these tend to lower resistance to the disease. Ordinary precautions should be taken to keep food clean, but food is not considered the source of the disease. It might be wise to boil milk, but pasteurised milk is safe to use. The most susceptible to the disease are children up to five years old, but even adults can be infected.

Mild attacks of .the disease are the rule, and paralysis occurs only in a small proportion of cases. Where a number or all of the following symptoms are present, medical advice Should be sought:—The continuation of fever; vomiting; constipation rather than diarrhoea; occasional pains in the stomach; drowsiness and irritability, especially when combined with headache; a transient flushing of the face; abnormal sweating or retention of urine. , In an article in the British Medical JournaJ, Sir Arthur S. MacNalty, chief medical officer of the Ministry of Health in England,, writes on the subject of epidemic poliomyelitis:— “Studies have shown that the disease is due to a virus which passes through the finest filter. The presence of the virus has been demonstrated in the nasopharynx of patients and of persons who give no definite history of having had the disease and who may or may not have been in known contact with it. Presumably, infection may be spread directly not oniy by patients but by persons apparently healthy. There is not sufficient reason to believe that the virus is conveyed to man by foodstuffs (including milk) or insects, or that the disease is associated with insanitary conditions. “In epidemics of poliomyelitis, infection is probably widespread in a community, but only a certain proportion of susceptibles are attacked. “An attitude of quiescence in dealing with epidemic poliomyelitis is to be deprecated. The argument has not infrequently been put forward that here you are faced with a widespread infection and that much of the infection is admittedly due to healthy carriers and mild cases which often go undiagnosed. You had better let the epidemic go on since you cannot check it, and concentrate solely on securing effective treatment for the paralysed victims of the disease.

“Personal experience has convinced me that much can be done with the whole-hearted co-operation of medical officers of health and general practitioners to check the spread and severity of an epidemic. If the infectivity of the disease is fully appreciated, if the existence of abortive and mild, cases is realised, and if these as well as the more easily recognisable cases are notified and isolated in hospital or otherwise, potential sources of infection are shut off from susceptible individuals; thereby the exaltation of virulence by passage from individual to individual is prevented, and the epidemic spreads to a much lesser extent than if uncontrolled.”