INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1528, 28 March 1916, Page 4

INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

Some information regarding infantile paralysis is given in a memorandum issued to the Health Department’s inspectors“ The incubation period is approximately six days, and the iufectivity of contacts may be placed roughly at about three weeks. The symptoms are not characteristic in the early stages. There is usually a general teeling of illness, headache, vomiting, high temperature, and possibly convulsions, stiffness of the neck, and tremor of the muscles occurs not infrequently. Paralysis follows within a day or so, and this may affect any muscle, but usually those of the arms and legs are affected. Within a week the constitutional symptoms disappear, and the paralysis of the limbs may improve to a certain extent.”

“Summer sickness” (the gastroenteritis which has been very prevalent during this summer) may announce itself by “a general feeling of illness, headache, vomiting, high temperature.” Thus a parent, with previous experience of this trouble, may not suspect, at first, any more serious ailment. There may be delay in summoning the doctor, and thus extremely important time is lost. “Better to be sure (and quick) than sorry,” is the homely advice in these cases.

As the germ of infantile paralysis is believed to enter the system by the mucuos membrane of the nose and mouth, as well as by the means of an insect’s bite, medical men strongly advise that children should not be kissed on the mouth by anybody. Certain antiseptic sprays or gargles for the nose and throat are used in the treatment of infantile paralysis and as a preventative.

Persons who have been in contact with patients are expected to be in quarantine for at least three weeks, but here the public is largely at the mercy of a “contact’s” conscience. Parents or other guardians of children are advised to keep them out of crowded places where carriers of the germs of infantile paralysis may pass them on.