INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20340, 25 June 1934, Page 8

INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

Bathing Theory Not Supported. Christchurch doctors da* not hold the view that anv grave risk of infection from infantile paralysis is caused through bathing, but one view was that there might be a danger if children bathed in public baths during the prevalence of an epidemic. A cablegram from Hollywood stated that the motion picture colony was observing a general ban on bathing pools as an epidemic of infantile paralysis had been traced to that source. The message also stated that private bathing pools were not being used. “There has been a lot of talk about infection through bathing, but it is a very debatable point,” said one doctor. “ I think there is a certain amount of risk, but it is probably coun-ter-balanced by the amount of good derived from the exercise. I would certainly not advise people 1 o keep their children away from the baths, though trouble is often caused through people going to the baths when suffering from colds. They infect the water in the same way that they infect the air. and as entry is through the throat and nose infection might be caused in crowded public pools.” “ There *ls some scientific error or it is a popular fallacy or suspicion that has not yet been proved." was another opinion. “ There has never been any scientific fact proving that infection has been directly due to bathing.” He doubted whether the organism of infantile paralysis would settle 4 n* sufficient numbers to infect the water. The probability was that the organism could be traced during an epidemic to the ground, dust, air, water and any other place. The proportion of human beings susceptible to the disease was very low. It was low in infancy, ro*e in childhood and decreased as a person grew older. The point of entry was through the throat and if people bathed in a badly infected pool it would be dangerous. Dealing with private pools, the doctor said it would be much safer to bathe in an open private pool than in a hot bathroom. ” If the message confined itself to saying that people were keeping away from public pools there might have been something in it,” he concluded.