SIX NEW SUSPECTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26640, 10 December 1947, Page 4

SIX NEW SUSPECTS

Poliomyelitis in Wellington District EXTENSION OF RESTRICTIONS P,A, WELLINGTON, Dec. 9. Six new suspected cases of infantile paralysis were reported in the Wellington health district to-day. Five of them are from the Hutt Valley and the other from Wellington. Three are children and three adults. No fresh positive cases were recorded in the Wellington district to-day, and the position is that there are four of these, as reported on the previous day.

As a further precaution against the spread of infantile paralysis, all public swimming baths in Wellington and the Hutt Valley are to be closed entirely from to-morrow morning until further notice. Instructions to this effect were issued to-night by the district medical officer of health, Dr Hubert Smith. Children, said Dr Smith, had been excluded first from attending public gatherings, but since a number of contacts had been young adults it was felt that extension of the control measures to higher age groups would appear to be warranted. The closing of swimming baths was an instance of this. Dr Smith also recommended that dances be not held, for * at these, he said, there was close contact between people. Christmas parties and social gatherings for children, he considered, should be reserved for family parties so as to avoid bringing different groups of people into unnecessary contact. Asked about the use of milk, Dr Smith said it was felt that properly pasteurised milk, served up and distributed in properly capped bottles, would be a distinct advantage over raw milk, where contamination with the infantile paralysis virus would be possible.

PROTECTION FROM SUN

CHILDREN SHOULD WEAR HATS A correspondent writes to the Daily Times: — Sir,—ln these days of the sun cult it may be courting ridicule to question the wisdom of a custom which has largely dispensed with the wearing of hats, more especially in the case of little children. In hot countries of the world we know that the head is well protected from the heat of the sun. To put our mind back for a decade or so, we in this country can remember the sun-bonnets and caps (for boys) worn universally by the children for protection from the rays of the sun. May I ask if the protection of a hat is necessary during hot weather, and further could we have some direction on this matter? These thoughts were prompted when reading the article in your paper “Solar Activity in Relation to Poliomyelitis.” —I am, etc., Anxious.

[The medical officers of the Department of Health advise that excessive sunbathing should be avoided, and that hats should be worn during the hot hours of the day.—Ed. O.D.T.J