INFANTILE PARALYSIS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2679, 27 January 1916, Page 6

INFANTILE PARALYSIS

A SERIOUS EPIDEMIC.. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, January 23. The present outbreak of infantitt paralysis in Auckland has assumed thj proportions of a most serious epiden .a of this disease experienced for a c. isiderable period, for recent notifications bring the total number of patients up to 34. Two deaths have occurred, the victims being a four-year-old male child and a woman (aged 29), but happily the majority of the remainder of the oases are only of a mild disposition, and many of the patients are on tha high road to recovery. During the year 1914 only 50 cases were admitted to the whole hospitals of New Zealand. During the last fortnight 19 additional cases have been reported to the Auckland Public Health Office. Most of the patients on exanimation ivere discovered to have had tho disease for periods ranging from a week to a month, and only in one or two cases bad the symptoms of the disease developed within the last two or three davs. The cases reported included only two of adults, tho remainder being children of varying ages. The major* ity of tho victims are only a few months old. The outbreak is of the usual baffling nature, the cases_ being reported from a number of districts, thereby eliminate ing the possibility of contact being responsible for every case. Some of the patients have come from th 6 city and others from various outlying places, in< eluding Epsom, Mount Eden, and Kingsland. One or two cases are of a serious nature, but in most of them only slight paralysis has occurred, many of tho little patients being able to walk and run about. Isolation has, of course, been resorted to by the health .authorities, and all possible precautions have .been taken to ensure prompt reporting of cases, the disease. being a compulsorily notifiable one, and to prevent its spread.