INFANTILE PARALYSIS

Taranaki Daily News, 18 November 1933, Page 7

INFANTILE PARALYSIS

PREVENTION AND CURE.

PROGRESS OF RESEARCH.

Sydney, Nov. 2.

From extensive research work being carried out in America and Europe it is hoped that results will eventually be obtained which will show considerable progress in the prevention and cure of infantile paralysis. The general feeling abroad is much, more hopeful than ,it has ever been, according to Dr. Jean Macnamara, who has returned to Australia from the United States. Dr. Macnamara left Melbourne more than two years ago, after having obtained a fellowship of the Rockefeller Foundation. After having spent a short period in Paris, she went to America, where she has been for 17 months. Among her experiences in America was an interview with President Roosevelt, who is a sufferer from infantile paralysis, and who devotes a considerable amount of his time to assisting organisations formed for the rehabilitation in the community of crippled adults. While there were many cripples as the result of . infantile paralysis _in America, Dr. Macnamara said, the incidence of the disease affecting the legs was greater in Australia than in America. She said that President Roosevelt’s rise to the Presidential office was a splendid object lesson in determination to surmount a great handicap. It had stimulated and encouraged thousands who were similarly afflicted.

“America is devoting large sums to the study of diseases of domestic animals and plant diseases which would throw much light on virus diseases of man,” Dr. Macnamara said. “Similar work of a valuable nature is also going on in Scotland, where diseases of sheep are being studied.” Dr. Macnamara said she was impreshsed by the lay and scientific libraries established in America and Canada, partly due to the stimulation of th.? Carnegie Trust and similar bodies. These libraries, she said, were under tire supervision of skilled professional librarians, who were keen to give their assistance to all those seeking information and desiring special books for any particular - \