The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-10-26
OUIZZING DOCTORS ON CHILD PARALYSIS
State Board of Health Sends
 Blanks to Physicians
Efforts Being Made to Learn
 More About the Malady
MASSACHUSETTS, HAS TAKEN SIM LIAR ACTION.

| The secretary of the state board of 1 health, pr. Joseph H. Townsend, yes 1 terday forwarded blanks to be f11ed I with information infantile para1y-
 sis in Connecticut to health officers in l thirty or more towns, including Bris- l tol, Canton, Cromwell, East Haven, i Enfield, Groton, Meriden, MiddletoWn, 1 Naugatuck, New Britain, New Haven, l Newington, New London, Pla1nvl1le, PoTnfret, Portland, SOuthington, Staff ford Springs, Stonington, Trum bull, 1 Waterbury, West Hartford, Windsor 1 Locks, Bethel, Bridgeport and Meri- | den.
 1 Accompanying the blanks is a let | ter from the secretary to the town, l city borough health officer, asking 1 that they be forwarded to all physi- 1 clans who have reported cases of this l disease to the officers during the past | summer or present fall, urging the l prompt filling and transmittance to l the state board which is conducting g 1 the investigation.
 1 It was announced that cases of in l fanti1e paralysis in Connecticut have diminished in number. Since 1881,
 medical literature has contained re- ports of outbr eakS of the malady and 1 that, during the last five years, these 1 outbreaks in several parts of the world have increased in frequency. The increased number of reports can ] not be attributed wholly to more ac- curate diagnosis greater care in l reporting the cases.
 1 The questions ask for the name, 1 age, sex, race and address of the patti ent, the address of the physician, if 1 the patient was in a detached house or teneme ent, on what floor, whether | the sanitary condition was excellent, l good, fair or bad; if the location of i the building was high, medium, low, 1 dry, damp-and if near stream or pond, how near; if there were other 1 cases in the family and any informa- | tEOn bearing on cOnta zion; if the 1 other cases were in the same house, 1 among acquaintances of the patient, I he P1aic r1a fHOO 1 any other disease prevalent in the town at the time or among the house pets or domestic animals in the Vicin- l Ity; how long the patient has resided | there; if the patient was out of town
 within a month preceding the attack; 1 if so, where, and was poliomye1itis 1 what was the diet and if the patient ] was @ thinker of raw cows milk; source of milk supply of the patient; l if the diet was general, was it meat, l fish, fruit, berries or what. There are | questions on the condition of the pat | tent previous to the attack, the fea- symptoms, headaches, convulsions. ! coma, retra of head, pain or l tenderness, and further questions on 1 the bodily distribution of paralysis on l each patient.
 l What Dr. Townsend wrote concern | ing the disease in the September bull letin printed by the state board of | health has already been published. He writes in addition a brief history of | the disease which he has publishe ed on the front page of the question leaf 1 let, with reference to the blank. He l states as fo1lows:-
 The disease is found to be moro | prevalent in cold than in warm coun- | tries, and more eases have been re- ported from the northern part of the 1 United States than from any othe CT
 part of the world. It occurs mostly in children but many adults have been afflicted. In 1907 there was an 1 epidemic of 2,5O0 cases in New York,
 the largest ever reported. It gener- ally begins in the summer and ends l after a few hard frosts, in October. i Laboratory workers have recently demonstrated that infantile paralysis 1 is an infectious disease caused by a 1 living organism so small that it can
 pass through a bacterial filter. It is l thought to be most contagious during
 the early, or febrile stage of the dis 1 ease. Most of the laboratory study | has been made upon monkeys who
 aequire the. disease by inoculation of i an emulsion of certain tissues from a | human being dying of the disease,
 and from affected monkeys.
 | The laboratory has not yet put us
 in possession of the essential facts as
 to how the disease enters the human ! body, nor how to prevent or check
 it's spread. The laboratory work
 must be supplemented by a field i study. We need to classify the early
 symptoms and esta ablish, if there be
 such types of the disease; we need to l investigate the conditions under which 1 infection seems to occur, with a spec l ial inquiry as to the mode of entry | of the virus into the body.
 With a view to the prevention of
 the disease, the state board of health 1 expects that every case discovered will be Quarantined. Most local l boards of health have already passed
 an ordinance requiring a quarantine 1 in this disease, and such action is approved by this board. The dis 1 charges from a patient-stools, urine l sputum-shou1d be disinfected
 |
 Good results always follow the use 1 of Foley Kidney Pills. They contain l 41,I -