INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1220, 14 March 1914, Page 3

INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

HOSPITAL BOARD TO TAKE

ACTION

At Thursday’s meeting of the District Hospital Board, Mr Hornblow directed the Board’s attention to the Health Officer’s report, which stated that three cases of anterior acute poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis) had been reported from Kiwitea. Commenting on this, the Foxton representative said that the matter was one that was now concerning the medical profession and health authorities. Infantile paralysis, he went on to say, appeared to be a disease far worse than smallpox ; medical skill was able to combat the latter, and its effect caused disfigurement, but infantile paralysis crippled a child for life. It had been stated that the various hospital boards were to be notified that this disease was contagious. Mr Wilson: That’s just gazetted. Mr Hornblow : At our meeting to-day three cases have been reported of this disease having occurred at Kiwitea, in the Feilding district. I think it is of the utmost importance that this Board should take drastic measures, and instruct the Health Officer to apply to the Minister for Public Health and Dr Valintine as to what steps shall be taken. The Inspector had said in one place: “I should be pleased to know the procedure in detail as to disinfection and exclusion from school,” Mr Hornblow said he was only a layman, but he wanted to do all that was possible to protect the health of the children. He then moved that the clerk write to Dr Valintine on the matter, and that they also get a report from their medical officer. This was carried. Mr Pearce said that he was in Dunedin last week, and quite a scare on the matter had been caused there. Medical men had taken children away from schools.

CASES REPORTED LOCALXV

Two cases are reported locally, and one at S ban non.

CASES ELSEWHERE

A young man about 18 years of age, and his sister, 14 years, have been attacked at Rangiora. The young man has become practically paralysed all over the body, and the girl has lost the entire use of her legs. Another case is also reported in the same district. A fifteen-year-old girl, whose parents reside at Aramoho, is reported to be suffering from infantile paralysis. The girl has just returned from Dunedin, where the disease is said to be prevalent, which supports the theory of infecliousness. So far four cases have been reported in the Wanganui district.

Two cases of infantile paralysis are at present under treatment in the Auckland Hospital. The sufferers are boys aged respectively about two and three years. The medical authorities place them in the category of mild cases, and the patients are progressing favourably. Dr Maguire, medical superintendent of the hospital, informed a reporter that at this time of the year there were usually one or two cases of infantile paralysis in the institution, and there was nothing abnormal in this instance.

DISEASE TRANSMITTERS

NOT YET FOUND

The micro-organism of infantile paralysis, it has been announced, has been found and has been cultivated by Dr. Simon Flexuer and Dr. Hideo Noguchi. The microorganism consists of globe-like bodies, measuring from a third to a seventh part of a micron, or at most the hundred-thousandth part of an inch in diameter. When cultivated, they grew in pairs and chains and masses, but in human beings and other animals affected the chain-like growths did not appear, and the experimenters are not yet certain whether the microbe is bacteria or protozoa, vegetable or animal. They are so small that they pass through the special laboratory filters, and though they are classed with those that produce small-pox or foot and mouth disease as filter-passers.” the discoverers say that unlike those, the microbe ot infantile paralysis shows that actual micro-organism which develops the disease. In the other disease, micro-organism in its elementary stage is invisible, and can only be seen when it has grown. The problem of the transmission of the disease has not been settled yet. The fly has been blamed, and it is known that flies play a very large part in the local distribution of the disease. Flies rarely travel more than 500 yards from their breeding place, though they have been known to go over a mile, but the medical authorities have insisted that the fly cannot be the only transmitter of poliomyelitis. The disease was recognised as an epidemic disease in the closing years of the last century, and the authorities say, it has been gathering virulence in the course p£ a world tour during the past six years.