WELLINGTON BOY DIES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 79, 20 April 1937, Page 4

WELLINGTON BOY DIES

-Press Association.)

Comment on Treatment By Nose Spray

(By Telegraph-

WELLINGTON, Last Night. The death has o.ccurred of a boy of 14 admitted to the hospital from Lower Hutt on Saturday. This is the first iatal case of infantile paralysis iii Wellington. Two positive cases were admitted to-day, a boy of five from Island Bay, a non-paralysis case, and a boy of seven from Berhampore. All the Wellington Education Board schools in the North Island were elosed to-day. Hitherto the only schools elosed have been in the city and the Hiitt Valley and certain others where infantile paralysis had occurred. The information about the trqatment of children ;s noses with spray to prevent them catching infantile paralysis had been given to the medical profession only fof what it was worth and specialists sounded a definite note of caution in discussing such treatments, said Dr. M, H. Watt, Direetor-General of Health, when referring to the comments of Dr. E. F. D'Arth on American experiment3. Although experiments with monkeys had been successful, the treatment had not been proved with human subjects. The American public health authorities had urged care, and about the same time the British Medical Journal had sounded a note of caution about applications to the nose. The reaction of the medical profession had been definitely on the side of caution, Dr. Watt said. He did not know of the treatment being tried in New Zealand at all.