INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 171, 19 January 1914, Page 2

INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

FEARS OF KI'IDEMIC IX TIIK SOT Til. ] I i!y Te!".'i'aph.—i'ress Association. C'hristchurch, January 15. i A sriecial telegram from Dimcdin J .states" t'hiit the' Health Department I warns parents that an epidemic of ini inutile paralysis is gaining there. [ This telegram was referred to local j medical men this afternoon, and some 1 interesting particulars were obtained rcI garding the disease. The, facts summed 'up are these:—ln tlie past there have j been sporadic eases of infantile paralysis in New Zealand, but so far as is known no epidemic. The disease is believed ! io be caused by an organism, and is inifections. Tt i:', onlv 'recently (hat (be j infectiousness of the disease lias been 1 discovered. The disease, usually results ill death or permanent disablement. It is not conlined to children. j It is believed thai, with proper pre- | cautions the epidemic can be prevented J from spreading to Oliristclmrch. The J. opinion is held by medical men that the [epidemic has reached Dunedin from (America, where, it has been rife of late. A medical man who has recently arrived from liriliiin, where he had eoni siderable experience, of tlie disease, besides working. under a well-known American authority, gave some interesting details concerning it. Its correct name, lie said, was poliomyelitis. It was almost certainly an infectious disease, after the style of diphtheria. Tt was due to an organism which, however, had not yet been identified. On occasions the ■disease occurred sporadically all over Britain and Australasia, lint on other occasions ' when changes occurred in the j organism it, assumed the form of an .epidemic. In the ordinary sense it was not infective, so far as .medical men knew. In 1908 there, were 500 cases in New York alone, 'many of which, ended fatally, whilst a laige'numbcr of others resulted in paralysis and deformities. Most of the. (dub feet one saw were due to infantile paralysis. The disease could occur amongst adults. A large number of adults in Scotland had been strickei with the disease, as well as ma»y pe«- [ pie. in America. With adults the disease generally left as a legacy some form of' paralysis, 'but of course 'no shortage of the limbs as in the ease of children, because, the limbs wvrc full grown. So •far as he knew no previous epidemic lnul .occurred in Xew Zealand. The epidemic would be very dillicult to tackle, because .so little is known about it. The only

1 way would lie to class it as an infection's diseaso and see Hint cases'wore notified promptly to the Health Department. Tlie disease usually started witli an ordinary feverish -attack, and then the parents would suddenly discover (hat one of the child's limbs was paralysed. The, disease usually attacked the legs, ilnniirh it also occurred in the arms. It j usually resulted fatally or in permanent injury, though lliere were cases of complete recovery. The percentage of deformitics was very high. Miss Maud Kcattv, the well-known actress, in her last letter from America toiler parents in Christchureh, said: "We are now on tour with my own coml»:iny, and the first town struck was Eureka. Business was ail right for Unfirst few nights, hut a disease known as 'infantile paralysis' broke out, and the authorities prohibited children attending the theatre. As we show three times a day this was>a .serious loss to us, as the matinee nlwacs comprised a good nunrbcr of children with their parents. "