The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-04-24
A COMING EPIDEMIC
lnfantlle Paralysis Sure to Ravaoe
the Country

AINAAAnf UilNEittdiAh anu ADt GOuAiUuT
nifty In general ought to realize that
the terrible disease. paliomyelitis,
called infantile paralysis, will in all
probability break out again with the
coming Of warm weather. At the
present season, which is early for
this disease to show itself, a number
Of cases have been brought to New
York hospitals, and there are at this
moment two epidemics In Louisiana,
where, OF course, the weather is much
warmer.
Even yet, the public, including
many physicians, do not fully grasp
the proved fact that infantile paraly-
sis Is a communicable disease, In
some forms highly contagious, and
that, In epidemics the strlctest quar-
antine ought to be insisted upon. DR..
Flexner of the Rockefeller Institute
who through experiments on monkeys
has contributed essentially to the pre-
sent knowledge of the disease, and
DR.. L. Emmett Holt, the eminent child
specialist, both strongly insist on the
need of treating infantile paralysis
as a definitely contagious disease and
of taking organized precautions
against its spread throughout the com
munity. Last summer a number OF
boards of health In various cities so
recognized the disease and made It
reportable, but such recognition is not
as yet sufficiently general, nor Is the
intense need of it sufficiently felt even
in communities which have undergone
its deadly visitation and have formal
ly though not very. actively, classed
the disease as contagious.
The last few months have added to
the experimental knowledge of the
disease. Before that II had been prov
ed through experiments on monkeys
that the disease is a germ disease,
due to a living organism so small that
it cannot be seen by the most power
full microscope, but when an emulsion
from the spinal cord OF child who
had died from the disease Is injected
into the blood of a monkey there is
produced in the animal the symptoms
of paliomyelitis, including paralysis,
and sometimes death. 1t had also
been shown at that time that further
injections Of the virus into monkeys
which had recovered from the disease
produced no effect, thus showing that
one incubation produces immunity
principles in the blood, preventing or
tending to prevent, a second attack
Ii was also at that time suspected
that there are what are called labor
tive" cases that is, cases where all the
symptoms of the disease are present
except paralysis, and that these cases
may transmit the contagion to per-
sons in whom paralysis may result.
It was also shown that there are pas
sive carriers OF the disease, persons
who do not themselves contract the
infection, but who pass it along from
one person to another. Thus school
children have spread the disease in
their families in some cases where
they themselves did not contract the
malady
One of the most important results
of the experiments of the last few
months has been to show that the dis.
ease may possibly be communicated
many months after all active efforts
have ceased. The incubation of a
filtrate of the nasopharyngeal mueosa
OF monkey, dying five and a half
months after the acute stage of the
disease in other NOTWITHSTANDING
that the virus had persisted in the
nose of the animal all that time. If
| ii should be shown that the virus per-
sists indefinitely in the noses of chill
dren after they are apparently well,
it will increase materially the diff.
culties of guarding against the spread
of the disease. II is now thought
that the nose is the original portal
of entry for the germ. In spite OF
this probability, DR.. Flexner, express.
ed himself as against the use of dis
infectants in the nose as means OF
prevention, on account of their posi-
bly, harmful effect on the eustachiau
tubes.
Another recent advance In ouI
knowledge is with reference to the
abortive cases, greatly increasing the
probability of their existence. 1t has
been shown that the serum of persons
who have recovered neutralizes the
virus so that when injected into mon
keys infection does not take place
Recently the serum from nine suspec
ted abortive cases was studied, anC
it was found that the serum from sir
of them possessed the same germicid
al action against the virus as serum
from a case which resulted in paraly
sis-thus establishing the existence
OF the disease in the six cases where
paralysis did not result.
Another recent discovery is the DOS
sible efficacy of drug called urotro
pin as a disinfectant of the cerebro
spinal fluid 1t has been shown tina
when the virus of paliomyelitis is in
1ected introcerebrally in monkey.
in which this drug is already presen
in the fluid, and the drug is then ad
ministered daily by mouth thereafte
IN a certain proportion but not all o
these animals, the onset of the paraly
sis is entirely prevented This drug
however DR.. Flexner says, is In N,
sense a specific. Successful results
have been secured in inhibiting infec
ton but not in restraining an alread,
established infection with the virus
They abe at present at work, on tn,
preparation of a serum antidot,
strong enough to destroy the virus
AS yet, however, there is no way o
treating the disease directly. AL
that can be done at present is to trea
the effects of the disease and to guart
against its spread. Our great Difficult
ty in the way of treatment of the dis
ease is the difficulty and danger, /
not impossibility, of making a diagnc
sis until paralysis actually occurs
The symptoms are similar to tn
symptoms in many other Infections
fever, pains in the head, neck, limbs
digestive disturbances, more or les
general prostration, all this in create
or less degree, sometimes no apparen
diGfnrha noac para 1,tofc ooo,,..s.,.. r.