INFANTILE PARALYSIS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24492, 28 December 1940, Page 8

INFANTILE PARALYSIS

AUSTRALIAN DOCTOR'S RESEARCH PATHWAY OF THE VIRUS (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, Dec. 19. The medical outlook on infantile paralysis, one of the most dreaded of diseases, is expected to be revolutionised by the experiments of an Australian research worker Dr F. M. Burnet, at the Hall Institute, Melbourne, has demonstrated that the cavity behind the mouth, at the,top of the throat, is the main pathway of the disease, and that paralysis infection can be swallowed and absorbed in the bloodstream from the stomach or intestines. * ■ '•

This conflicts with the theory, previously held, that infantile paralysis infection was inhaled through the nose became lodged in its lining, and then spread from there to the brab and spine

Zinc sulphate sprayed into children's noses, and nose clips to prevent the inhalation of infection, were tried during the last epidemic here. Dr Burnet states that. these are. useless preventives- .

The use oi nose preventives was adopted because experiment on monkeys overseas had indicated that the paralysis virus was inhaled. Hitherto, Rhesus monkeys have been used, but Dr Burnet used Cynomolgus monkeys, from the Malay Peninsula, and found them far more susceptible His experiments with these monkeys show that the mouth is the main pathway of the disease. Fed directly with food contaminated with the virus, the monkeys contracted the disease. Dr Burnet concludes that infection in children is similar; the throat and alimentary tract are portals of infection and the nose olavs no part in it. His results were confirmed b\ Dr E. G. Robertson, of Melbourne, who found by post-mortem examination of human victims, no evidence of spread from nose to brain