INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1525, 21 March 1916, Page 3

INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

As previously mentioned, there are a number of cases of infantile paralysis in the borough and adjoining district. Seven definite cases have been recorded in the borough, while a few suspicious cases have been, and are under observation. Owing to the lack of a water and drainage scheme in the borough, it is essential that every householder should take the utmost precautions to keep their premises in a thoroughly sanitary condition. We are pleased to state that suggestions in this coa‘nection have been carefully carried out by a majority of the householders.

After consultation with local medical men the Chairman of the local school committee communicated with and received the sanction of the Board to close the school for a week Irom yesterday, in order that the interior of the building should be thoroughly cleansed, disinfected and fumigated and also to remove any suspicion of contact, Parents must not magnify these precautionary measures or take alarm at what is being done, as there is every indication that we have passed through the worst of the epidemic and a change to cooler weather may result in stamping out the disease. In the meantime, parents are requested to keep the children off the streets and as much as possible out of the sun. In these matters it is hoped they will exercise a proper discretion. The question ot spreading the disease by means of “carriers” or contact is for medical experts to decide, but if there is any danger of infection from such a source then the closing of the school lor a week on this score alone is justified. The choice between the street and the school cannot be applied to Foxton as the children do not gather in the dusty thoroughfares as in more thickly populated areas, because the children have plenty of room to play in the paddocks adjoining their homes.

Only one fresh case of the dread disease is recorded locally, the patient being a lad of 14 years. He has been removed to the District Hospital.

The suggestion is being made in many quarters that the schools should be closed, says yesterday’s New Zealand Times. There does not appear to be any good reason for a general measure of this kind. The majority of the cases occur among children who do not attend schools at all, and apparently no connection between the disease and the congregation of children in schools has been traced. The cases have been scattered about in a most irregular way. It seems, in any case, that the choice very often is between the school and the street, which is used as a playground when the children are on holiday. The school, carefully cleaned and disinfected, should be the healthier place.