The Nome daily nugget., 1935-12-03

the area into a gigantic laboratory for the study of the use of vaccines in immunizing persons to the dis ease. Medical authorities on the spot believe 1t will prove to be the most important experiment of Its kind ever undertaken.
 North Carolina's plight follows in the wake of lesser epidemics in California and elsewhere. The very seriousness of the increase in in fantile paralysis cases may prove to be blessing in disguise If enough can be learned about the insidious virus, which twists and cripples bodies, to protect humanity against 1t in the future.
 The first widespread attack of polio was noticed in Jackson coun- ty, in the far western part of North Carolina. From there the disease jumped, in the words of Dr. J. c. Knox, state epldemiologist, "like a skyrocket," and "burst' in Raleigh and the rest of Wake county, all the way across the state, on the Atlantic seaboard.
 It is believed that the disease in North Carolina has been checked and is abating, but in Virginia the number of cases reported is on the upturn, it's course having seemingly followed the highway over the en- tire length of the state, with no in- dication yet as to where its spread will stop.
 Cause of Spread Unknown.
 Just how the disease was car ried is not known. Direct contact with a diseased person is not neces- sary to contract it. It almost never strikes two members of the same family. Carriers" people who have such mild cases of polio that they do not even feel sick-carry the virus to others whose natural immunity is low and who therefore contract the disease in considerably more violent form. That is much the same as the manner in which typhoid fever and diphtheria are spread. A single carrier, unknown to himself. may create several se- were cases.
 When a few carriers hit region where the natural immunity of the people is relatively low, an epidemic is usually the result. That is prob- ably what happened In North Caro- lima and Virginia.
 While the disease Is not nearly so much confined to young chil. dren as the term infantile paralysis would suggest, 1t Is still more preva- lent in children of five or less than in any other age group. For that reason the one sure preventive is a difficult one to administer. It Is complete Isolation. The only way to be absolutely certain of keeping children from catching polio is to keep them away from all playmates and from all crowds.
 Unfortunately there is no sure way to tell who Is immune and who is not. And there Is no means of effecting artificial immunity which has been satisfactorily proven. Vac clnes which may do the trick are being tested now In the southeast epidemic.
 Dr. Maurice Brodle, working un- der Dr. William H. Parks, head of the New York city health depart ment, has developed the Park-Bro- die vaccine. Another has been de- veloped by Dr. John A. Kolmer, of the Temple university medical school in Philadelphia. With the William H. Merrell company, man. ufacturing chemists of Cincinnati, Doctor Kolmer is providing between 6,00O and 1000 "shots" of the vac cine free every month-enough to vaccinate about 3,600 children.
 Test Two Serums.
 Neither of these vaccines must be believed to be cure. They are merely preventives. Both of them contain the polio virus-not a bac- terium, but poison. The Parks. Brodie vaccine contains the killed" virus and Doctor Kolmer's contains the greately weakened virus. Both have been known to produce in anl- mals an immunity which lasts about two years. How long it will last in l human beings has not yet been de-