INFANTILE PARALYSIS

Hokitika Guardian, 27 January 1926, Page 3

INFANTILE PARALYSIS

AMERICAN TRIBUTE TO NEW ' ‘ ' ZEALAND. Even to-day, perhaps, few people realise what a tremendous battle the medical profession in New Zeahnu put. up against the 1924-25 epidcmc of infantile paralysis. I bat hght-on-manv-frouts has been described m a special report drawn up by the Department of Health, and forwarded to Dr George Draper, of New York, an eminent authority on infantile paralysis. Events which occur very close at band are sometimes not valued at their full significance; and therefore manv people will form a new idea of New Zealand’s war against infantile paralysis—of its impotence to the world at large as well as to this country—when they read the following passage from Dr Draper’s acknowledgement of the Health Department’s re- * “The whole statement is so good and the material so interesting, that I ]>>opose to incorporate it. practically without change, in the next supplement of blio “Nelson Loose-Leaf Medicine.” in the resume of literature on infantile paralysis, of which department I am the editor.” In another part of bis letter-which is addressed to the Director-General ! of Health (Dr Valintine)— Dr Draper I pays a tribute to the effort which the i Health Department evidently put iuj to it- “extraordinarily interesting do- | euinent.” Concerning the serum ; treatment, be makes the following per- ' tinent observation :

“I was so interested to hear that you had had good results with the use of recovered serum. I am convinced that it is a specific. Unfortunately. its success depends upon the making of a pre-paralytic diagnosis, and the ability to obtain the serum-two

distinctly difficult obstacles. The difficulty attaching to the first “obfsacle”—pre-paralytic diagnosis, which means the diagnosis of infantile paralysis before the paralysis stage sets in—turn mostly on the question how soon the parents report to the doctor, anil on the time the doctor takes to diagnose. The delay factor. ;is far as the doctor is concerned, should he small, for, as the report points out, “lumbar puncture” gives ready means to early diagnosis.

As to Dr Draper’s second point, the ability to obtain scrum depends largely on being able to trace persons who have become immune hv recovery from previous attacks—perhaps years before—and in their capacity and willingness to part with blood samples for the purpose of preparation of serum. The volunteer spirit in a matter of this sort is usually abundant, and the tracing of recovered perons is much helped by a good record system in hospitals. No limit can be

set to the period of immunity acquired by recovered persons; and in numerous eases the blood of those recovered from infantile paralysis in 1916 was effective in 1924 to save sufferers who, thanks to early reporting and efficient diagnosis, were gathered in for hospital treatment before the paralytic stage. With the early use of serum must of course lie bracketed immediate splinting and posturing; and the basis of any medical war against such an epidemic is an efficient hospital system, which New Zealand possesses,