CHILDREN’S SAFETY

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 309, 15 December 1936, Page 4

CHILDREN’S SAFETY

INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

STRATFORD PRECAUTIONS.

Hospital Board Discusses Problem with Doctor.

All precautions are being taken at Stratford to avoid any chance of an infantile paralysis outbreak, following a report received yesterday that 14 cases are in hospital at Dunedin. There have been no cases in Stratford or elsewhere in Taranaki, but the Education Department is taking no chances, and schools everywhere closed this morning for the holidays instead of at the end of the week.

A, telegram was received yesterday by the Taranaki Education Board from the Director of Education, Mr N. T. Lambourne, who asked all schools to close this morning and stressed the importance of keeping children in the open air and preventing them from congregating. National stations are to broadcast on the matter.

The Director’s wishes were carried out at Stratford school this morning, and though the early closing caused a rush of work for the staff, the children were away from the buildings well before mid-day.

Hospital Board iVews. Asked by the Stratford Hospital Board to-day whether any special action regarding infantile paralysis should be taken, the medical superintendent, Dr. W. Brown said 'that the emergency was fully covered by the policy announced by the medical officer of health in the Dominion. All schools were being closed and all children were being excluded from theatres in Dunedin. It was a wise precaution to see that children were not congregated together. *

The medical profession was still very much in the dark as to the causation of the disease, he continued. It was known that the disease was due to an ultra-microscopic germ, and the methods of prevention were to keep children from congregating together during epidemics, to see that they wore adequate head protection when out-of-doors in bright sun and to immediately segregate any children displaying suspicious symptoms such as high temperature. The disease was spread by carriers who did not themselves suffer from the disease. It existed in two forms. One, the abortive form, was extremely difficult to diagnose, as paralysis did not develop and the only manifest symptom might be a high temperature, which would not seriously alarm parents. In the other form a child might go to bed at night apparently quite healthy’ and wake ; up in the morning paralysed. The 14 cases which had occurred at Dunedin were all paralysed. The disease w r as not an infant malady in the strict sense of the 'term, Dr. Brown went on. Although children were the most susceptible, cases were recorded o fadults being efflicted.

Symptoms of Disease. v '• . I Interviewed later by The Press, Dr. Brown said that there were other recognisable symptoms besides the high temperature. An attack was usually preceded by a general falaise, a feeling of all-round upset. This would be followed by a feverish condition, and there might be convulsions or delirium. Sometimes, though' rarely, there were abnormal pains and vomiting. An occasional symptom was a pain in the back of the neck. An unfortunate feature was that the temperature sometimes passed unnoticed until paralysis had set in.

After the feverish stage., said the doctor, paralysis set in and usually lasted for two or three days, when it would clear up to a certain extent. The period of recovery was about ! three months, and after that some i paralysis, slight or serious, would re- | main. ; One attack. Dr. Brown continued, I rendered the sufferer immune for life, i and this fact influenced the treati mem. of the disease, the present method being to inject a blood serum from a person who had recently had an attack. The serum would lessen the extent of the paralysis and even, in some cases, effect a cure. Regarding the cause of the disease, Dr. Brown said that a present theory was that it was caused by a germ transmitted from the nose or mouth of a carrier, so that there was always a danger when children were playing I and shouting together or congregated! in numbers. Asked if there was anything in the ■ theory that it was caused by the stin i beating down on an unprotected I head. Dr. Brown said that there was not enough definite data for him to commit himself. The theory had probably arisen from the fact that many attacks seemed to be contract-