The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-25

lHe Il
 6. A percentage of persons, children particularly, die during the acute stage
 of the disease. This percentage va ries from five in certain severe epi-
 demics to twenty in others. \ The av- craze death rate of many epidemics
 has been below 10 per cent. A report
 ed high death rate may not be actual
 but only apparent, since in every in-
 stance the death will be recorded, while many patients who recover may
 not be reported at all to the authcri- ties. In the present instance it is too
 early in the course of the epidemic to calculate the death rate, which may prove to be considerably lower than it now seems to be.
 2. Of those who survive, a part
 make complete recoveries, in which
 no crippling whatever remains. This number is greater than is usually sup posed, because it includes not only the
 relatively large number of slight or
 abortive cases. but also a considerable
 number of cases in which more or less of paralysis was present at one time. The disappearance of the paralysis may be rapid or gradual-nay be complete
 in a few days or may require several weeks or months.
 The remainder, and unfortunately
 not small number. suffer some de-
 gree of permanent crippling. But even in this class, the extent to which recovery from the paralysis may oc- cur is very great. In many instances the residue of paralysis may be so
 small as not seriously to hamper the
 life activities of the individual; in oth-
 CTS in whom it is greater, it may be relieved or minimized by suitable or thopedic treatment. But what 1t is imperative to keep in mind is that the recovery of para1yzed parts and the restoration of lost muscular power and function is a process which extends
 over long period of time--that is,
 over months and even years. So that
 even a severely paralyxed child who
 has made little recovery of function by the time the acute stage of the dis
 ease is over. may go on gaining for weeks, months and even years, until in
 the end he has regained a large part
 of his losses. Fortunately, only a very
 small number of the attacked are left
 severely and helplessly crippled. La
 mentable as it is that even one should
 be so affected it Is nevertheless re-
 assurance to know that 50, many re-
 cover altogether, and that so much of what appears to be permanent paral- ysis disappears in time. There exists at present no safe
 method of preventive inoculation or vaccination, and no practicable meth cd of specific treatment The preven- tion of the disease must be accom- plished through general sanitary
 means; recovery from the disease is . ,fov xrytaA Al. hA greatly assisted by proper medical and surgical care. Infantile paralysis is an infectious disease. due to a definite and
 specific micro-organism or viruss re- covery is accomplished by a process of the acute period of the disease. The tendency of the disease Is toward re-
 covery, and 1t is chiefly or only be- couse paralysis in some instances in-
 wolves those portions of the brain and
 spinal cord which control respiration
 or breathing and the heart action that
 death results. Finally, it should be added that not since 1907, at which time the great epidemic of infantile paralysis of polio-
 myelitis appeared in this country, has
 the country or this state or city been
 free of the disease. Each summer since has seen some degree of access
 sion in the number of cases; the rapid
 rise in the number of cases this year probably exceeds that of any previous year. But it must be remembered
 that in 1908. several thousand cases
 occurred in the greater Nctty-possibly indeed maly eases of and deaths due to the disease were never reported as
 such. Hence the present experience, severe and serious as it is, is not some thing new; the disease has been se- verely epidemic before and was
 brought under control The knowl-
 edge regarding it, now is far greater
 than it was in 1908; and the forces of
 the city which are dealing with the
 epidemic are probably better organized
 and in more general cooperation than ever before. The outlook. therefore
 should not be regarded as discouraging