INFANTILE PARALYSIS

Evening Star, Issue 23686, 20 September 1940, Page 6

INFANTILE PARALYSIS

SWEDISH SCIENTIST'S CLAIM VIRUS SUCCESSFULLY ISOLATED Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright STOCKHOLM, September 18. Karl L. Kling, chief of the State Bacteriological .Research Department, reports that he has successfully isolated the virus of infantile paralysis. He has reached the conclusion that the infection spreads chiefly indirectly, like typhoid, dysentery, and cholera, and rarely directly as the result of personal contact. Live virus was found in butter ma.de with contaminated water. NEW ZEALAND CONDITIONS DIFFERENT DR G. E. HERCUS'S OPINION Asked for his opinion this morning concerniing the above message, Dr C. E. Hercus, Dean of the Medical Faculty. said that while the facts stated by *Dr Kliug—with whom Dr Hercus had discussed this very matter when he was abroad earlier in the year—were important, there was clear evidence, in so far as New Zealand condit : ons were concerned, that personal contact, rather than the manner described in Dr Kling's message, was the chief cause of the spread of infantile paralysis. The Stockholm Chief of the Slate Bacteriological Research Department, said Dr Hercus, was perhaps inclined to over-emphasise tho new fact which he discloses, and it would bn a serious mistake to accept the positiou as applying to Now Zealand.