Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-09-23
Battle Against Polio
Medical Science Reports Plenty Of Progress,
But the Disease Remains q Gripping Killer
By WoIIoee E. Clayton

AS the September nights grow cool
and the days grow short, millions of
parents all over the country are
breathing collective signs of relief and
reasSuring each other that the polio
danger is over.
Unfortunately, this is not true. Cool
weather has about the same effect on
a declining auumn polio rate as
farmers cry of Whoa" to a horse
which has already started to run
away.
The cool-weather theory is one of
dozen misconceptions about polio, the
unpredictable disease which has
struck down more than 100 persons
in the Washington area so far this
year. 1t is true that polio case re-
ports usually start declining near the
end of September. But DR.. Carl c.
Dauer of the Public Health Service
points out that physicians are more
aware of polio in the summer than
in the winter.
I'm the winter, a stiff neck is lust
a stiff neck-something you got from
sitting in a draft. In the summer,
however, the case is studied more
closely, and may be diagnosed as
mild, non-paralytic case of polio" he
explains.
If weather was a factor in polio,
our rate would show a sharp drop. not
a decline" DR.. Dauer says, pointing
out that last year, when 33,35l per-
sons were stricken, there were SGT
new cases reported the first week in
December. However, it does seem to
be true the polio attack is less severe
IN the Wintertime.
Some Immunity
Persons who have actually had a
mild polio attack without knowing it
are probably immune to at least one
OF the three known strains of the
virus. Doctors say it is a perfectly
safe assumption that "a considerable
number" OF persons have virus fight
ing antibodies in their blood as q
result OF mild attacks of polio.
Doctors point to the number of
undecided cases in emphasizing that
hysteria and fear should not be re-
actions to a polio outbreak.
Polio is a Gripping and costly dis
ease, and statistics indicate it may be
on the increase. But victims should
take heart in the fact that less than
20 per cent OF the cases are seriously
and permanently crippled.
That percentage may sound large.
But in 1916, when 1853 persons were
stricken, nearly all cases were
paralytic.
Ninety-two per cent of all polio
victims survive the disease. Once a
person has recovered, he faces no
after-etfectS, as do patients stricken
with rheumatic fever or tuberculosis.
or any OF a dozen other diseases
which often condemn sufferers to
"half-llfe" of restrictions and in
activity.
The increase in the number of per-
sons restored to normal or near
normal activity after a polio siege is
due to number of factors.
Big Advance
A big advance in the battle to de-
feat polio after the virus has attacked
was made 20 years ago in Boston.
A young man named Barrett Hoyt
lay fighting for breath a few hours
after being stricken with bulbar polio.
A doctor at his bedside recalled an
experimental machine designed by
DR.. Philip Drinker of Harvard. It was
supposed to help patient breathe
by applying pressure from an electric
motor. 1t had been used once before.
but the patient had died of pneu-
monia.
The doctor rushed to the ware
house where it was stored, and
brought the cumbersome machine
back atop taxi. Mr.. Hoyt was
placed in it, and soon fell asleep the
machine lhythmically chug -chugging
as It forced air into the patients
lungs Four weeks later, Mr.. Hoyt
left the hospital.
The machine was, of course. the
iron lung" There are more than
5000 lungs" in the country today.
and thousands of people owe their
lives to them.
Paralysis of the limbs can't be pre-
vented or cured by iron lungs In
TACT, the huge respirator prevents the
patients doctor from using necessary
tnerapy to guard against paralysis,
Rocking Bed
Medical science may have found a
way to beat the restrictions of the
, iron lung The Pittsburgh Municipal
Hospital introduced in 1916 a rock
ing bed" which also 'breathes" for
the patient
1t is not substitute for the iron
lung. but is useful in weaving" a
patient away from the reSpirator
After weeks in the iron lung it is
hard for patient to adjust himself
to leaving the cumbersome cage.
The rocking bed moves up and
down. and gravity makes the dia-
pnragm take air in and out of the
lungs Meanwhile, the patient is free
to move as much as he can, and
therapisrS can get to him.
Accepted treatment of polio
patients today includes a combina-
ton of hot packs and therapy-the
Sister Kenny treatment-and sup
mort of weakened muscles by braces.
The National Foundation for In
fantiie Paralysis. leader in the fight
against polio, says that SO per cent
of the hospitals treating polio patients
now use The principles" expounded
by Sister Elizabeth Kenny. Physi-
clans admit that many of the once
controversial methods of the Aus
tralian nurse are helpful.
Biggest stumbling block in the polio
program today. according to DR..