DREAD DISEASE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 260, 20 January 1941, Page 8

DREAD DISEASE

A CHANGED APPROACH The medical outlook on infantile paralysis, one of the most dreaded of dis/eases, is expected to be re-" volutionised by the experiments (if an Australian research worker. Dr. F. M. Burnet, at the Hall Institute, Melbourne, has demonstrated that the cavity behind the mouth, at the top of the throat, is the main pathway of the disease and that paralysis infection can be swallowed and absorbed in the blood stream from the stomach or intestines. Tl\is conflicts with the theory, previously held, that infantile paraljrsis infection was inhaled through the nose, lodged in- its lining, and spread from there to the brain and spine. Zinc sulphate sprayed into children's noses and nose .clips, to prevent the inhalation of infection were tried during the .last epidemic here. Dr Burnet states that these are useless preventives. The use of nose preventives was adopted becamc experiment on monkeys overseas had indicated that tlie paralj'sis virus was inhaled. Hitherto, Rhesus monkeys have been used, but Dr Burnet used Cynomolgus monkeys from tlie Ma-* lay Peninsula, and found them far more susceptible. His experiments with those monkeys show that the mouth is tlie main pathway of the disease. Fed directly with food contaminated with the virus, the monkeys contracted the disease. Dr Burnet concludes that infection in children is similar; the throat and alimentary tract are portals of infection. The nose plays no part in" it. " \ * His resultswere confirmed by Dr E. G. Rob&filon, of Melbourne, who found by post-mortem- examination liymrri v'cHms no of spread from nose tc brain, ,