INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21131, 14 March 1932, Page 10

INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

CASES IN SOUTH ISLAND. SHORTAGE OF SERUM. APPEAL TO BLOOD DONORS. Four positive cases of infantile paralysis were notified to tho Health Department in Christchurch last Thursday, bringing (lie total since the? beginning of the outbreak last month to twenty-three. A positive case was discovered in the Waltham Orphanage last Wednesday, and the inmates and staff, numbering approximately fifty, were placed in quarantine for fourteen days. Considerable trouble has been experienced at. tho orphanage through sickness during recent weeks, and for some time past nurses from the Christchurch Hospital have lieon residing on tho premises. An outbreak of whooping cough reached large proportions a fortnight ago, but tho most serious cases were transferred recently to Bottle Lake Hospital. It was followed by an outbreak of diphtheria, and last Monday several cases of this disease were taken from tho home. Ihe case of infantile paralysis is of a mild type, as have been most of tho cases to date. Tho institution is under tho direction-of the North Canterbury Hospital Board, and measures aro being taken to prevent any spread of tho disease. There are nearly forty children in tho home at present.

Tho epidemic is almost totally seated in tho South Island. Fifteen of 28 cases in ono period were from Canterbury, six from Otago, six from Southland, and one front tho West Coast. Scarcity o! Serum. The Christchurch Hospital staff is handicapped in doaling with cases of infantile paralysis by a lack of serum, and an earnest appeal is made for help from donors of blood. Frankly, there is disappointment over results with serum so far. Serum in sufficient quantity and of the right kind must be made available to fight iho diseaso. While not wishing to sound any alarming note, Dr. A. B. Pearson, pathologist at the Christchurch Hospital, informed the Christchurch Sun last week that the results with scrum this time are not* as good as they were in the visitation of 1925.

He said that there was a shortage of serum, and it was now necessary to call on professional donors of blood. Such scrum had to bo used in the absence of Lhe serum from persons who had recovered from the disease. The average healthy adult, it had been shown by experiments overseas, has blood which contains an anti-body which gives immunity from infantile paralysis. But that blood is not quite as good as the blood from a recovered case.

"Wo want morn recovered people to como forward," said Dr. Pearson. "There has been a fair response, but it has been from very young children. Tho older ones are needed. There is a paucity of the host serum, and wo want volunteers." Suspected Cases Watched.

The doctor said that if there were a bigger supply of serum it could be used from seven or eight donors, and the results would be better. In the epidemic of 1925 tho serum was given early, and was wonderfully effective. Tho majority of the cases seemed to be small children, and there were aspects of the present incidence of the disease which bore a likeness to that of 1925.

Quito a number of suspected cases,, said Dr. Pearson, was under observation, but, wisely, the public was not hysterical about the position. There was no need for hysteria. It was generally agreed that people who were suffering from'the disease wero not infectious; the disease was propagated by tho healthy carrier. In tho meantime the demand is for serum, and tho blood from recovered cases provides the. best serum. •