INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 March 1921, Page 5

INFANTILE PARALYSIS.

NO CAUSE FOR ALARM. AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT. An official statement in regard to infantile paralysis, issued by the Public Health Department on Saturday, indicates that the present position in New Zealand is by no means alarming, the disease presenting no evidence of assuming serious epidemic proportions. The full text of the statement is a? follows: “While infantile paralysis (acute poliomyelitis) iis classed amongst the infectious diseases, and a causative organism has been isolated, the infectivity is of a low order. This is best shown perhaps by the well-known fact that it is exceedingly rare for more than one case to occur in any one hospital. The position at present in New Zealand is by no means alarming. The disease, while more prevalent than of late years, presents no evidence of assuming epidemic proportions in any degree comparable to the 1916 outbreak. Since the beginning of the year the notifications of this disease by weeks are as follow: — Week ending January 3 3 10 5 17 11 24 10 31 17 February 7 22 14 22 21 20 “In considering the above figures it should be added that the disease is never entirely absent, and even in the most favorable years sporadic cases occur. , _ “The nex£ table shows the number of cases reported to the department during the years 19117-1920: — 1917 1918 1919 1920 54 6 11 40 “The department is exercising strict precautions with regard to every known case. The general public will best guard against the disease by attention to personal hygiene and strict observance of the ordinary rules of health. Fresh air, above all, is most desirable. “The disease usually has as one of its results the development of paralysis of a group or groups of muscles in the arm or leg, or both, and the treatment of this paralysis is, in the majority of cases, best carried out in a hospital Most cases will require to be carefully watched and treated for lengthy periods after discharge from hospital m order to prevent deformities of various kinds from developing. The importance of such after-treatment cannot be too much stressed. “At the present time there are more than 100 children being treated for infantile paralysis at the military hospitals at Rotorua and Trentham, under an arrangement entered into between the defence and Health Departments These children are obtaining the benefits of treatmen* at the hands of specially trained medical officers. “A larce number of the affected children eoffie from the country districts, and is- being given treatment at the centres which they otherwise could not possibly obtain. In addition to the medical and surgical treatment, the educational welfare of these children is being attended to. The Education Department has started a school with two teachers at Trentham, and is about to