THE MYSTERY MALADY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume V, Issue 1276, 15 March 1918, Page 6

THE MYSTERY MALADY.

X AND IB VICTIMS. AUSTRALIA LOOKS FOR THE MICROBE. [As our readers will have noticed from the cables, Australia is perplexed by a mysterious disease. Here la an account of the position as it appears to the Sydney “Sun.”J The Health Department likes nothing better than a mystery disease. The appearance of some unfamiliar enemy to human health throws the pathologists and micro-biologists info a condition of joy® and expectant activity. They plunge energetically into the search after the secret that Nature strives to withhold, and the chase after the elusive microbe, whose habits and methods must be understood before the disease can be successfully treated, is relentlessly maintained. It is not often that medical scientists are afforded such an opportunity for investigation and research as has been presented by the occurrence of the disease which has been designated by the algebraic symbol X. It is the unknown quantity in medical science for the time being. There are plenty of other unknown quantities—such, for instance, as cancer and infantile paralysis—but X is the most mysterious of them all, because it is the newest. The last great opportunity for original research was when bubonic ' plague came to Sydney from the East. Though the scourge had ravaged older countries for centuries, claiming its hundreds of thousands of victims, it was not understood by the medical profession. The New South Wales Board of Health, of which Dr Ashburton Thompson was then president, took the investigation in hand, and in a short period it was established beyond doubt that the rat was the host of the dreaded disease and that the flea was the vehicle of infection between the affected rat and the healthy man. There is no reason why the brilliant success achieved on that occasion should not be repeated in tracing the X microbe to his lair. Ignorance of the Disease. The ignorance of Ihc medical profession concerning X is profound. It is not even known how long it lias been here, whence it came, how many cases have occurred, what is its favourite locality, what its mortality percentage, what its congenial conditions, or whether it is due to the eating of unwashed grapes or to the inhaling of poison fumes from the silver-lead works. The first cases were reported quite recently. It is considered possible, however, that other cases occurred and were not identified, and there is reason to suspect that a number of patients suffering from the disease in a more or less mild form are still being treated for something else. While it is true that most of the cases reported have occurred at Broken Hill, there is no conclusive evidence that their origin was due to eating grapes, and the idea lhat they may have been caused by lead fumes is discounted by the fact that similar sicknesses have occurred in localities where such influences do not exist. In the absence of precise pathological and. micro-biological conclusions, however, it is impossible to say that the case at Wagga, for instance, was identical with the cases that have occurred elsewhere. Grape Theory Discounted. Up to the present very little indeed has been accomplished in the way of identifying the disease or deciding as (o its cause. Cases of sickness, accompanied by all the apparent symptoms and effects of X have been reported over a wide area in the west, especially in the north-west, extending as far south as Wagga and as far north as Narrabri. But in ihe condition of uncertainty which prevails it is impossible to say positively that the cases are similar, or lhat if X represents the Barrier cases it also represents the eases that have occurred 200 miles away. Although one of the Barrier doctors has expressed the opinion lhat there is some connection between X and unwashed grapes, the health authorities in Sydney do not accept the theory. The fact that several patients had eaten grapes before they became ill is not regarded as any more conclusive evidence than lhat they drank tea or made a meal of bread and butter. The circumstances of cases occurring in the Far West, away from the Barrier, are easily suggestive of the probability that the patients there had no opportunity of eating grapes. In the absence of any more convincing proof it is considered quite probable lhat there is no relationship of cause and effect between grapes and X. The idea of scaring people against enjoying good, wholesome fruit is also deprecated. Fruit that is unripe or is not good, or is dirty may cause a multitude of troubles, but these arc conditions that ordinarily careful people guard against as a matter of course.

High Rate of Mortality, X is terribly fatal. Just how much so has not yet been decided. But probably aO per cent, of the patients die. Perhaps more, because it is not at all certain that all cases have been identified. The high mortality is duo mainly to ignorance of the pathology of the disease. Diphtheria used to be the most dreaded infantile disease known. To-day it is understood, and is so amenable to modern treatment that it is scarcely more fatal than measles or whoop-ing-cough. There is every reason to hope that X will be as completely mastered in, the near future. The pathological effects of X are largely those of infantile paralysis. They take the form of an acute attack upon the nervous system, with all the distressing effects of infantile paralysis. The outstanding features of the symptoms appear to he high fever, convulsions, and sudden collapse. In fatal cases the patient usually dies of exhaustion, though I the information available is not sufficient to enable the medical pro-j fession to say that death is always due to exhaustion. Doctors in the 'west have been asked to forward to the Board of Health the histories of cases that come under their notice, and in due course the profession will be able to identify X immediately it Sars. There is one feature quite net from infantile paralysis, however, so far as is known. In cases of recovery from X there is no resulting paralysis so often present in the other disease. May Appear on the Coast, About 30 cases have been reported this year, and the deaths to date number about 12. Whether the dis-

ease is contagious or infectious has not yet been established, but tbe comparatively few victims seems to suggest that it is neither. No sullicient opportunity has yet been afforded of accurately defining the course of the disease. There appears no medical reason why it should not thrive in the coastal I areas, but in the cautious words of an official of the Health Department, “So,far the disease, as far as this department is aware, has been confined to the west and north-west

districts.” The Board of Health is engaged in an attempt to isolate the micro-or-ganism and to discover how it obtains access to the human system. The elucidation of the former problem is a necessary precedent to the determination of the other. Doctors have been sent to Broken Hill to inquire respecting local conditions, and specimens from each case are

sent to Sydney for investigation and research by the Board of Health. The laboratory is deeply interested in the problem, but the best report the authorities can make to date is: “We have not yet reached finality. Until we have, no opinion can be expressed.”