The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-18

reaches susceptible soil. |
 The important point is that a much | larger proportion of cases of poIio-i
 myelitis appears to be caused by con-
 tact with an unknown virus carrier convalescent, healthy or atypically ail- ing-than is the case with most other
 infections.
 A particularly perplexing feature of
 this disease is the remarkable incl
 dence in rural districts. This prefer
 ence for out-of-the-way, isolated b.
 calities has been noticed in many re-
 gions in which the disease has occur red, All that is known eXperimentally
 of the localizatiOn of the virus and it's
 mode of entrance points to direct con-
 tact with infected human beings as
 the chief, if not the only, means by
 which the disease is contracted. Ln-
 sects, water supply, foodstuffs, domes-
 tic animals and other external agen- cies have never been proved to have
 any share in causing infantile paraly-
 sis And yet some unknown feature
 of rural~life appears to favor it's pro-
 pagatfon and spread. This rural in-
 cideAce is very conspicuous in the
 carefully studied Vermont epidemic.
 Utterly ,ineXplicable is the fact that
 many small sparsely settled rural
 townships off from main, thorough
 fares were severely Visited. Many
 times the first case in a town occurred Fin families whose members had not
 been away from home for several weeks and who had received no sus- picious visitors" In harmony with such observations are the facts that the more densely populated towns where contact is presumably more frequent often suffer less during m epidemic than the thinly settled dis tricts near them. In the Vermont out break of 1914. the village of Barton, with population of 1900, had twen- ty-three cases. while Burlington, with over 10000 inhabitants had but thir-, ty-two, or about one tenth as many in proportion to the population. The ap- parent conflict between the facts of observation and experimentation needs | further elucidation. Why are there not more cases of poliomyelitis in To- ] calities where opportunities for con | tact are numerous than where they are few?
 1 In spite of such puzzling questions, the best results in control have been I obtained by the ordinary. methods Of | isolation. At present the methods
 available for fighting the spread of in-
 fantife paralysis are those made fam
 liar in many other infections. Every
 frank case and every suspected case
 should at once be reported to the health authorities All cases of even slight illness in young children should be carefully handled with reference to 1 the disinfection of discharges from the nose and mouth, and the patients, if necessary, should be placed under ex- lpert supervision. Any convalescent or any person who has been in contact with the disease must be regarded as l a possible carrier of infection. Oppor-' tunities for the contact of large num- | bers of children, as at parties,S picnics and moving picture shows, should be l avoided so far as possible. Such are l the methods that are suggested by our present confessedly imperfect knowledge, and measures of this char acter are being carried out energetic ally in New York. The outcome of the | work of the municipal, state and ra-
 tional health authorities in New York
 will be anxiously awaited. The situa- ton could not be in better hands. It may be confidently expected that some additional knowledge of the most eff.
 fective way of combating this baffiing infection will be soon forthcoming.