Evening star., 1945-08-04
Better Than Average
Chance Given Polio
Victims This Year
BY MARION WADE DOYLE.

= 11ilS, SullLilC1 . PS3io NiSehAAo a'cN>
a better r-than-average chance fol
complete recovery within a year
!Childrens and Gallinger Hospitals
indicated today in survey of 24t
persons stricken last summer.
About $50 of last years victims
,62 per cent of the 240 studied-noy
are entirely well, the hospitals re-
ported in the Medical Annals, pub
,lished by the District Medical So
,ciety. -
The remaining cases are improv-
ing to the extent that in another
year 80 per cent will be entirely well
and only 20 per cent will have some
form of paralysis, DR.. P. A.. Nc
5Lendon, chairman of the Childrens
Hospital Polio Committee, said.
: d. C. Cases Rise to 20.
| Meanwhile, total cases for 194s
have risen to % in the District and
80 county residents are hospitalizeo
here. Three new cases reported yes
terday we're 27-year-old woman
from the 3700 block Of Livingston
street NV, at Gallinger Hospital
and a 9-year-old boy and a 5-year-
old girl from darlington, Va, both
at Children's Hospital.
{; OF 162 of last years cases studied
by the five-man Children's Hospital
committee, only 10 per cent have had
.poor" recovery. About 13 per cent
of the 78 cases studied at Gallinger
similarly showed only slight" re-
covery.
In several of these Gallinger
cases, however. the paralysis is not
severe, Dr., Jane Howell, stan
physician, said. She prepared the
report with DR.. Henry Feffer. -
About Is per cent Of the Chill
dren,s Hospital cases and about "a
per cent of the Gallinger cases are
showing moderate improvement
under treatment continued at their
homes by private doctors or through
the hospital clinics.
A considerable number" of these
patients eventually will be in the
ranks OF the completely recovered,
DR.. McLendon and DR.. Howell COM
mented.
Not Easy to Detect.
Some of those with a defect from
the disease manage so we'll only a
physician could detect it, the Chill
dren's Hospital Committee report
indicated.
Fifty-four OF. the 162 cases studied
at Children's never showed any
paralysis. Twenty-six Of the 78
Gallinger cases were nonparalytic.
The death rate was six patients,
all with bulbar polio, at Children's,
and eight patients, mainly with bull
bar, at Gallinger Hospital. This
form of the disease affects breathing
and swallowing.
Gallinger Hospital reported pa
tients who only imagined they had
contracted polio. Despite the fact
that only 339 persons in Metro
politan Area of 1000, 900 actually
contracted the disease, fear Of it was
so widespread that "emotionally
disturbed" people knocked at Gal
fingers doors all summer.
- Hard to Convince.
The doctors often had to talk for
some time to convince these people
that examination had revealed no
evidence of the disease.
Both hospitals used the Kenny
hot NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. treat
ment in most cases. This treat
lnent is being continued this year,
it was indicated.
The value of prostigmine, a drug
highly publicized during last sum-
mer's outbreak, still has not been
accurately measured, the Childrens
Hospital Committee said. 1t has
helped relieve-but has not proved
a positive cure-for spasm, symp-
tom Of the disease. -. ...
Ultraviolet irradiation - drawing
out blood and bathing it with violet
ray-helped combat Infection in
bulbar polio but did not help spinal
paralysis cases, the Children's Com
mittee reported.
Most of the Childrens Hospital
patients-both parslytic and non-
paralytic-were kept at least two
months for treatment and to pre-
vent harm from hidden effects Of
the disease. About II per cent Of
these cases were discharged in five
months. Four. however, are still
there. .:... -.
I Gallinger discharged 48 of its pa
tients in six weeks and about 80
more in three months. 1t still is
treating two from last summer.
Twenty-seven victims of this sum-
rner's outbreak are now at Chill
dren's and IL at Gallinger Hospital.
Some have been already discharged
from both hospitals.
French West Africa has been
under a strictly controlled economy