INFANTILE PARALYSIS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 January 1941, Page 6

INFANTILE PARALYSIS

NEW LIGHT ON CAUSES SWEDISH RESEARCHES. j SOME IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES. | A report recently issued Dy the Swedish Stale Bacteriological Laboratory «'>.»> rosarch work in respect of iniantilej paralysis and its causes carried on at the laboratory indicates that several; important discoveries have been made; which may be ot great value in IM: lighting of the disease. For instance.; the virus of infantile paralysis has for the first time in Sweden been discover-, ed in sewer water, and it has also been: found in food. Knowledge as to the separation of the virus through the intestinal canal during the acute stage of the disease hits been considerably increased as a result of the laboratory's investigations in the. course of the infantile paralysis epidemic in Stockholm last autumn. By[ employing the very* latest research methods it has been possible to isolate the virus from the bowel ejections of typical eases in the earliest stages in such a high degree that the separationj of the virus through the bowels can Insaid to be a constant phenomenon. i

In principle this puts infantile partilysis on the same plane as certain bacter-j ial intestinal illnesses whose dissemina-i lion methods are known, such as ty-; phus. paratyphus, dysentery and chol-j era. From the many observations per-t formed by the laboratory regarding the. epidemiology of infantile paralysis, it, therefore seems legitimate to assume; that the disease is ehietly conveyed by . indirect ways —eg., by virus-infected 1 water, food. etc. This does not exclude! the possibility of the virus being trans-j ferred direct from a sick person to an-j other, but such an occurrence belongs; to the rare exceptions. ■ > Tile laboratory has ascertained that; sewer waler can be a virus-carrier during an epidemic period, and that the! virus cati keep itself alive in this <-n-; virunmenl tor a Ivng time, lliis sub-; slantiati-s experimental observations ; made by American researchists recent-j ly. The laboratory also found the viruslast year in the well on a farm in ; locality where infantile paralysis was occurring, and similar discoveries h;tv< j since' been made elsewhere. Tin.' virus; was thus discovered in a bathing pool which was fed from water from a fores’, stream in the neighbourhood. Many children bathed in the pool, but fortim-i ately .mly one of them, a nine-year-old; boy. was stricken by the disease ■ vestigalions carried out by the Inborn-.' lory show that it alto possible for foods'uifs to be bearer- ot the virtu under certain circumstances. Professor Carl Kling, the head <>: the laboratory, points cut that '.lie method.of ascertainitig the existence of m'antile paralys::; virus in u-'carch material of diiLnm. itmds mv ' rcmms-arrval p.me-caiisumim'. and expo:.- .v K---evarchnts have (•■ rely up -n . -per.men's mi animal: and at present ther> . ~..ly one usable type of .tiunal tin but '■ iah ai eal ■ :■■ .m; iie with ; cig’.- n rat-. v! w'mrh a number rvcvwly have bee:, received from America He al- i licei.,i< -. ’.hat ob-erv.ttmm. mad, . ,a; ' mf.it Hie pai.ily.-o research. !-u winch tin y seem to open ' ft vsli ;.*.' tan' It -s therefore o! < \- treme .mpottamc that their observa'.i'..’;., in uld be te ted by ■ tln r invest.g.i’.'Ut a::d lh< Swvii.sh State Bac’vrmlogical 1 .al-> i ■>to! vha f.n s.-me mt-i-uhs been m a position ',»> do this. Tia- Swedish pi-.fe: i.r th.ally de--i.ut . Ilia ;:;:h .---i. ■■ O. a p< cu . ii., i p.demo’h gy . f infantile par.ily- ■ have Levii :!lum:na'eii by the <x-tr.'-rc -td: ret::.l.::-, a of unsolved ♦ : k .. 1 ifjjys i' ' • live *•»