“SLEEPY SICKNESS”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 81, 27 June 1927, Page 3

“SLEEPY SICKNESS”

ENGLAND’S 2b,000 CASES At the Hospital for Diseases of the Nervous System, Maida Vale, W., continuous war is being waged on en-cephalitis-lethargica, better known as “sleepy sick | ss,” which is proving one of the most baffling and deadly of modern diseases. The disease is growing with alarming rapidity, and last year, it is estimated, more than 20,000 people were affected. The hospital at Maida Vale has the credit of being one of the first two places in this country to recognise the disease. That was after the The cause of the disease is attributed to an organism too minute to be detected by the microscope. It has been discovered that what were regarded as post-encephalitis, or secondary, symptoms are really evidence of a chronic form of the disease which has never reached *an acute stage. It is believed also that there may be some connection between “sleepy sickness” and influenza. The mortality from disease of the nervous system, of which “sleepy sickness” is the worst, is higher than from tuberculosis and almost as high as from cancer. Young, old, and middle-aged are equally liable to attack. One patient at the hospital is a boy of 16, who, only a few months ago. was an alert page boy at a London club. He is now a physical wreck, with glassy, staring eyes and open mouth. Another patient is a middle-aged man who has been attending at the hospital since 1918. Although the doctors have done everything in their power, he is becoming steadily worse.