THE MYSTERY MALADY.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 March 1918, Page 6

THE MYSTERY MALADY.

AN X DISEASE THEORY. Australian Cable Association,

Sydney, March 18. As the result of a Broken Hill doctoi; attributing the X disease to the bloom on unripe fruit, residents in the district nave largely stopped the eating of fruit and the crops have been allowed to rot on the trees and growers are heavily losers The majority of the doctors discredit hp theory and the bulk of expert opinion favors the opinion that the disease >r, closely allied to infantile paralysis.

X AND ITS VICTIMS. LOOKING FOR THE MICROBE. The Health Department tikes nothing better than a mystery disease (says Sydney Sun). It is not often that medical Scientists are afforded such an opportunity for investigation and research as has been presented by the occurrence of the disease which has been designated by the algebraic symbol X. It is the unknown quantity in medical science for the time being.

There are plenty of other unknown quantities—such, for instance, as cancer and infantile paralysis—but. X is tile most mysterious of them all, because-it is the newest.

The last great opportunity for original research was when bubonic plague came to Sydney from the East. Though the scourge had ravaged older countries for centuries, claiming its hundreds of thousands of victims, it >vaß not understood by the medical, profession. The New South Wales Board of Health, of which Dr Ashburton Thompson was then president, took the investigation in hand, and in a short period it was established beyond doubt that the rat was the host of the dreaded disease, and that the flea was the vehicle of infection between the affected rat and the healthy man. There is no reason why the brilliant success achieved on that occasion should not bo repeated in tracing the X microbe to his lair. { f

IGNORANCE OF THE DISEASE. The ignorance of the medical profession concerning Xis profound. It is not even known how long it has been here, whence it came, how many cases have occurred, what is its favorite locality, what its congenial conditions, or whether it is due to the eating of unwashed grapes or to the inhaling of pofsion fumes from the silver-lead works.

The first cases were reported quite recently. It is considered possible, however, that other cases occurred and were not identified, and there w reason to suspect that a number of patients suffering from the disease in a more or less mild form are still being treated for something else.

While it is trr.e that most of the cases reported have occurred at Broken Hill, there is no conclusive evidence that, their origin was due to eating grapes, and the idea that they may have been caused by lead fumes is discounted by the fact that similar sicknesses have occurred in localities where such influences do not exist. In the absence of precise pathological and micro-biological conclusions, however, it is impossible to say that the case at Wagga, for instance, was identical with the cases that have occurred elsewhere.

GRAPE THEORY DISCOUNTED. Up to the present very little indeed has been accomplished in the way of identifying the disease or deciding as to its cause. Cases of sickness, accompanied by all the apparent symptoms and effects of X have been reported over a wide area in the west, especially in the north-west, extending as far south as Wagga and as far north as •Xarrabri. But in i.he condition of uncertainty which prevails it is impossible to sav positively that the cases are similar, or that if X represents the Barrier cases it also represents the cases that have occurred 200 miles away.

Although one of the Barrier doctors has expressed the opinion that there is some connection between X and unwashed grapes, the health authorities in Sydney do not accept the theory. The fact that several patients hat! eaten grapes before they became ill is not regarded as any more conclusive evidence than that they drank tea or made a meal of bread and butter. The circumstances of cases occurring in the Far West, away from the Barrier, are easily suggestive of the probability that the patients there had no opportunity of eating grapes. In the absence of any more convincing proof, it is considered quite probable that there is no relationship of cause and effect between grapes and X.

The idea of scaring people against enjoying good, wholesome frifet is also deprecated- Fruit that is unripe, or is not good, or is dirty, may cause a multitude of troubles, but these are conditions that ordinarily careful people guard against as a matter of course.

HIGH RATE' OF MORTALITY. Xis terribly fatal. Just how much so has not yet been decided. But probably 50 per cent of the patients die. Perhaps more, because it is not at all certain that all cases have been identified. The high mortality is due mainly to ignorance of the pathology of the disease. Diphtheria used to be the most dreaded infantile disease known. To-day it is understood, and is so amenable to modern treatment that it is scarcely more fatal than measles or whooping cough. There is every reason to hope that X will be as completely mastered in the near future.

The pathological effects of X are largely those of infantile paralysis. The outstanding features of the symptoms appear to be high fever, convulsions, and sudden collapse. In fatal cases the patient usually dies of exhaustion, though tho information available is not sufficient to enable tho medical profession to' say that death is always due to exhaustion. Doctors in the West have been asked to forward to the Board of Health the histories of cases that come under their notice, and in due. course the profession will be able to identify X immediately it appears. There is one feature quite distinct from infantile paralysis, however, so far as is known. In cases of recovery from X there is 110 resulting paralysis so often present in the other disease.

MAY APPEAR ON THE COAST. About 30 eases have been reported this year, and the deaths to date number about 12. Whether the disease is contagious or infectious lias' not yet fetes Mt&fellflMd. but tlw comsftwtivel?

few victims seems to suggest that it is neither. No sufficient opportunity has yet been afforded of accurately defining tho course of the disease. There appears no medical reason why it should not thrive in the coastal areas, but in the cautious words of an official of the Health Department, "So far the disease, as far as this Department is aware, has been confined to the west and north-west districts." The Board of Health is engaged in an attempt to isolate the micro-organism and to discover how it obtains access to the human system. The, elucidation of the former problem is a necessary precedent to the determination of the other. Doctors have been sent to Broken Hill to enquire respecting local conditions, and specimens from each ease are sent to Sydney. for investigation and research by the Board of Health. The laboratory is deeply interested in the problem, but the best report the authorities can make to date is: "We have not yet reached finality. Until we have, no opinion can be expressed."