The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1935-08-15
Infantile Paralysis
Epidemic Often Is q
Paradise for Qudcks
(By Robert D. Pottery

any type of treatment which promises
a cure for the disease. An epidemic
Of infantile paralysis, in many ways
is quack's paradise.
What are the symptoms of infan-
tile paralysis and what can the doc
tor offer in the way of treatment and
cure? A brief description does much
to explain why quack and old super
stitious remedies still persist.
The disease is insidios in it's APP
roach. When an epidemic does not
alarm people. the condition may be
overlooked until paralysis really has
arrived.
At the start infantile paralysis is
like many other infectious diseases.
Headache with vomiting, fever, drow-
siness and irritability when disturbed
plus congestion of the throat all need
to be watched carefully when the dis
ease is prevalent in a community.
Stiffness in the neck and back de-
:.:and immediate, careful investiga-
tion.- Since infantile paralysis affects
the nervous syste there is tenderness
Of the muscles and skin and pain in
the joints. The pain may be so great
that every position and motion is al
most intolerable.
The disease before paralysis comes
is called the preparalytic stage. Many
physicians feel that preparalyticl
carries too great connotation of
paralysis later which is distinctly not
the case. They prefer the term nom
"aralytic stage and explain that
m"ny cases are often mistaken for
a had summer cold by the patients
and have no more permanent harmful
effect.
In treatment early diagnosis, as
always, is desirable. The victim is
1nt to bed and given absolute rest.
He may be given convalescent blood
serum or a vaccine (both still in the
experimental stage) and that unfor-
tunately is about all the physician
can do at the moment. Isolation of
the patient, of couse, goes hand in
hand with these measures.
Careful watching, and systems of
muscle exercises when the right time
comes, can do much to overcome COM
plete disability and even bring the
patient back to his former state of
health. But at the first incidence of
the disease the physician can do little
more than keep the patient in bed
and wait.
All of which is a discouraging pic
ture for the parents Of the stricken
child. And riding on the discourage
ment come the quacks and quack
remedies which promise everything.
At the start of the North Carolina
epidemic of polio the newspapers
each day published the names and
addresses of the latest victims. That
soon stopped for it amounted to but
little more than an authorized sucker
list for the hangers-on while in the
outskirts Of Legitimate medicine.
Naturopaths, coming North after a
winter season in Florida found strick-
en- North Carolina a convenient stop
ping place. Among the major jobs of
DIR. C. v. Reynolds, state health Of
ficer, and DR.. ]. C. Knox, state cpl
demiologist, was to make the con-
Meeting links between victims and the
quacks as difficult to forge as posi-
BILE. And if they were finally made,
to break them up as quickly as posi-
bic.
Each days mail to the offices of
the health department here bring a
score or more of letters from either
well-intended pesons telling of means
to cure infantile paralysis, or from
some person offering such a cure.
Although larger papers throughout
the state have stopped printing the
names Of the latest cases, stories
about "cures" still are good copy with
the wide reader interest in the small
er cmomunities.
There is the physician in the south
eastern part of the state, for ex-
ample, who is reputed ohave obtain
ed cure by smearing ichthyol oint-
ment over the body Of the child. I'M
mediately the state health officers
received three clippings and several
letters about the story.
What they knew, and the news
| naner didn't. Is that the nhvSician has