New-York tribune., 1916-07-14

person in attendance upon . case OF
infanti,e paralysis should be permitted
to handle food for sale to the generai
public. ~ - h.
best secured through the discovery ana
isolation Of those i'll Of the disease
and the sanitary control Of those per-
sons who have associated with the SICK
and whose business calls them away
from home. Both these conditions can
be secured without too great interier-
ence with the comforts and the righ''
OF individuals.
In the first place where homes are
not suited to the care Of the III 80 ina.
other children in the same or adjacens,
families are exposed, the parent snouId
consent to removal to hospital IN tne
! interest Of the sick child itself, as wen
as in the interest Of other cnildren'
But this removal or care must inciude
not only the frankly paralyzed cases
but also the other forms OF the dis-
ease. In the event of douotful aias-
nosis, the aid Of the laboratory is 10 De
sought since even in the mildest cases
changes will be detected in the cere-
brosninal fluid removed by lumbar
puncture. II the effort is to be made
TO control the disease by isolation and
segregation of the i'll, then these
means must be made as inclusive as
possible. 1t is obvious that in certain
homes isolation can be carried out as
effectively as in hospitals.
/ Personal Care Saves.
But what has been said Of the small
incidence of cases of the disease among
the hospital personnel and those with
whom they come into contact, indicates
the extent to which personal care OF
the body by adults and responsible
people can diminish the menace when
those accidentally or unavoidably IN
contact with the ill are to the COM
munity. Care exercised not to scatter
the secretions of the nose and throat
by splitting, coughing and sneezing, the
free use of clean handkerchiefs, clean
liness in habits affecting especially the
hands and face, changes of clothes,
ETC., should all serve to diminish this
danger.
In the end the early detection and
isolation of the cases OF lnfantile
paralysis in all of its forms, with the
attendant control of the households
from which they come, will have to De
relied upon as the chief measure of
staying the progress Of the epidemic:
5. The degree Of susceptibility of
children and other members of the
community to infantile paralysis is
relatively small, and is definitely lower
than to such communicable diseases as
measles, scarlet fever and diphtheria.
This fact in itself constitutes meas
ure of control; and while it does not
Justify the abatement of any prac-
ticable means which may be employed
to limit and suppress the epidemic, it
should tend to prevent state Of over
anxiety and panic from taking hold Of
the community.
s. A percentage Of persons, children
particularly, die during the acute stage
of the disease. This percentage varies
from five in certain severe epidemics
to twenty in others. The average
death rate Of many epidemies has been
below 10 per cent. A reported high
death rate may not be actual, but only
apparent, since in every instance the
death will be recorded. while many
cases which recover may not be re-
ported at all to the authorities. In the
present instance it is too early in the
course of the epidemic to calculate
the death rate, which may prove 70
be considerably lower than it now
seems to be.
7. OF those who survive, a part
make complete recoveries, in which no