INFANTILE PARALYSIS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 241, 4 February 1944, Page 20

INFANTILE PARALYSIS

(Written for "The Listener’ by DR.

H.

B.

TURBOTT

Director of the Division

of School Hygiene, Health Department)

its ugly head again, and since the holidays in one week there were nine fresh cases with three deaths. It is just as well, then, to review our knowledge of this scourge. teir PARALYSIS has raised Infantile paralysis is an acute infection due to a virus-a virus that attacks the brain, and the spinal chord, injuring the centres controlling arm, trunk, and leg movements. It gets into the body through the nose, throat, or intestinal tract. It is caught in one of two ways, either through virus-infected droplets being deposited in our noses and travelling up the nerves of smell into the brain, or else getting into the blood through tonsils, stomach, or intestines. This last is the more modern conception, for recent research has found the virus in the bowel discharges of cases and carriers, and also in town sewage. It is not only patients who spread infection, for there are healthy carriers in the community. In the 1935 Massachusetts epidemic towns suffered most which were beside waters used for bathing and which were contaminated by sewage. Bathers either got their noses infected or swallowed (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) some of the virus-polluted water. Most of the bathers were adults; they acted as carriers to the children. The disease incubates between seven and 14 days, usually about 10 days. A patient may be infectious and has to be isolated, at least 21 days. Sufferers should always be removed to hospital, for better isolation, and for skilled technical treatment. Any child contacts should stay away from school 10 days after the removal of the patient to hospital. Two Pre-Paralysis Stages Paralysis in a child is often the first realisation of an attack, but this is a late sign. When infantile paralysis is about we have ‘to watch for two preparalysis stages. Firstly there’s fever, headache, and flushing. Vomiting may occur. The throat may be sore-it may seem like an attack of influenza. Or there may be pains in the stomach, simulating a gastric upset. The child is off colour and drowsy, and may fall asleep easily during the day. Or there may be fretfulness, with a painful skin, so that the child doesn’t like being touched, but wants to be left alone. Secondly there’s a short period of stiffness of the neck and back. The child cries when raised by the head, because of the pain on bending the spine. Lastly there’s the paralytic stage, which may be the first noticed unless parents suspect apparent influenza or upset stomachs when infantile paralysis is in the neighbourhood. Watch out for a combination of fever, vomiting, constipation, drowsiness, and irritability, especially when combined with headache, flushing of the face, abnormal sweating, and possibly the nonpassing of urine. After the patient is removed to hospital, all his clothing and personal articles should be disinfected. Treatment is a matter of care of the paralysed muscles, to dodge deformities and restore function. It involves remedial exercises in warm water and the re-education of the paralysed parts. Prevention is a matter of keeping children separate, away from crowded places, and seeing that they always wash hands after visiting the lavatory and before eating food. Milk should be pasteurised, and all food protected from flies. Lastly-a balanced diet keeps the body strong and helps to resist the virus.