INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13972, 19 April 1916, Page 3

INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

SUGGESTED CAUSE AND REMEDIES. A Wellington doctor of high standing writes to the editor of the Press: "1 have been thinking out the infantile paralysis question, and I am certain it is a fly infection, and nothing else. My .reasons for coming to this conclusion are : — (1) It spreads all over the ci-m---munity .simultaneously, not by. the trade routes, for even children m the backblocks who *have never been m contact have got it ; (2) it is more prevalent m the country. Why? Because manure is all over the place, and flies are there m greater numbers because of the manure; (3) m Wellington the greater number of cases have been from the Newtown end of the town where tlie .stables arc and the zoo ; (4) the reason babies get it is, I am certain, through fly-infested milk. I would recommend that: — (1) All children's food bo clean and kept away from fly infection ; that the milk be boiled and the cups kept clean; and, m fact, that all food be kept free from contamination ; (2) that children wash their hands and faces before meals; (3) that raw fruit be made clean before bemg eaten. I should be very much interested to learn if any baby who has. been solely breast-fed has contracted the disease. The remedy boils itself down to 'Swat that ' fly,' which we are not doing, though, there is no doubt it is just a« dangerous as the mosquito m malaria-infected countries."