TASK FOR DOCTORS

Taranaki Daily News, 31 January 1933, Page 3

TASK FOR DOCTORS

INFANTILE PARALYSIS RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIA. MYSTERIES OF THE DISEASE.

Although the recent infantile paralysis epidemic in New South Wales is almost forgotten, except by those unfortunates.:/ who suffered, members of the medical / profession have been working hard to'-.* elucidate the mysteries of the .disease. A resume of the epidemic is published in . the latest edition of the Medical Jour- / nal, the article being the work of .th« honorary director of the Infantile Para~ J lysis Committee, who had the assistance . of another doctor who was closely connected with the fight - ; / During the epidemic, which followed i . closely on the epidemic in New Zealand, 435 persons were affected, 197 being in ? the Sydney metropolitan area, and the others from the rest of the State. The only exceptional centre was the . small 7 village of Barge, 60 miles from Sydney. Bargo had a population of 900,/ most- of the people being unemployed. tionally large.number of cases was re-’:/ ported from that centre. In the whole, of the State there were 57 deaths, / just / over 13 per cent, of the cases. A great /'. number of cases came from fanrilies/t which had been in receipt of help <fxomsri/ the State. Most argument was waged, at the tiipa- . of the epidemic about whether the ease was infectious. Many mothers, refused to allow their children' eveh /to play bn the beaches for fear of picking■/ up the trouble from some child, who had / been a contact. There were only fiva instances of two persons "being infected / in the same house. Of these it seemed : certain , that three pairs were infected ; ; by some third person. A nurse, aged 21, contracted the disease when ■ nursing : in r a ward in which there were several children with the trouble. Another in-/ teresting point is that although the condition" is commonly believed to he on* 7 of infancy, there were almost as many i cases over four years of age as under:;: in the Sydney figures. The essential treatment was rest-’in/ bed. After the paralysis had actually / occurred the affected muscles were plac- ; * ed in a position of rest. The ? treatment received an extensive '/ test; . There were “undoubted good results”/in. ■ the serum-treated cases, given beJoVethe paralysis had set in, but owing? to’ '< the difficulty of having scientifically controlled cases without serum the com- ', mittee cautiously refuses to give- an : opinion on the matter. The //Medicate Journal of-Australia, in an ap- / peals to the Government of the States arid Commonwealth to assist in research work by giving funds. ■ /