SINISTER SLEEP.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 161, 2 December 1926, Page 3

SINISTER SLEEP.

ENCEPHALITIS LETHARGICA. Encephalitis lethargica, which lately claimed a distinguished patient in the person of Lord Milner, is by no means as fatal as is often supposed; indeed, the death rate throughout a series of epidemics has shown a steady tendency to decrease. While in the year 1919-1920 there were 615 deaths out of 1273 cases reported, the mortality during the epidemic of early last year was only about 20 per cent. The use of the popular name of “ sleepy sickness ” for encephilitis is condemned by medical authorities because it leads to confusion with the dreaded sleeping sickness of Africa. Sleeping sickness, which is nearly always fatal, is a malady of quite a different nature, and is due to a microbe called trypanosome, introduced into the blood by the bite of the tse-tse fly.

In spite of the research work of recent years ensephalitis lethargica must still be classed among those diseases which are only imperfectly understood. Curative treatment is necessarily experimental, for, owing to ignorance of the true cause,, no definite remedy can be prescribed. In its early stages the malady bears a strong resemblance to influenza, or nasal catarrh, and • there is a danger of mild cases passing unrecognised. As the more severe cases develop, however, the symptoms become unmistakable. A rise in temperature is accompanied by weakness, much difficulty in speech, double vision—or perhaps temporary blindness— and sometimes partial paralysis. It is to paralysis of the nervous centres governing the breathing organs that death is due when it occurs. Lassitude and lethargy may manifest themselves at the outset, but they do not usually appear until after a lapse of two or three weeks.

In some of the worst cases there is not sleepiness, but acute insomnia, often in association with nervous convulsions or even insanity.

Encephalitis lethargica is compulsorily notifiable to the local health authorities, and every precaution is wisely taken to prevent it from spreading; but it is by no means a highly infectious malady, and there is very little danger of one person 'Communicating it to another. Undoubtedly one of the worst features of encephalitis is the terrible after-effects that it sometimes produces in children and young adults —

intellectual dullness, complete change of character, lyi/ig, theft, a form*of ner-

vous paralysis, and insanity, occasionally of a homicidal nature. Two years may elapse before these dreaded symptoms make their appearance, and if the original malady has been forgotten, or gone undetected, there is a danger of the unfortunate victim being branded with the stigma of crime or lunacy. It is, cf course, impossible to deal effectively with this sinister disease without a full knowledge of the cause, and this knowledge scientists in all parts of the world are working hard to supply. „