Polio, 1943

Though Surgeon General Parran of the Public Health Service announced last week that infantile paralysis, nearing its seasonal peak, is subsiding nationally, the disease has almost reached the epidemic stage in the U.S. The nationwide total since Jan. 1 is 2,753 cases, more than double the figure for the same period last year. Analysis of the half-year situation shows the present total to be higher for the same period than any year since 1934.

About 75% of the cases reported have come from four states: > California, with almost 1,000 cases.

> Texas, which had the worst poliomyelitis epidemic of its history, with over 750 cases. (Dallas has closed all its 34 swimming pools; Houston has been declared out of bounds for Ellington Field cadets'.)

> Oklahoma and Kansas, which are still reporting cases.

Generally, rural areas seem to be harder hit than cities. Last week the disease jumped geographically and appeared in Chicago and New Haven.

Almost as bad as the epidemic is people's fear of polio. This year fear of the disease is somewhat mitigated by the much publicized "hot-pack" method of the Australian nurse, Sister Kenny. About 25 Kenny specialists have been flown to the afflicted areas. But of some 2,000 physiotherapists in the U.S., only 300-odd have been trained in this new technique.

Sensational as the effects of the Kenny treatment have been, it never succeeds in cases of actual nerve destruction. But Dr. Miland Knapp of Minneapolis, ardent Kenny advocate, has recently raised a new hope. He found that use of the drug prostigmine together with the Kenny method hastened recovery by reduction of muscle spasm and incoordination. Dr. Russell Plato Schwartz of Rochester, N.Y., has had unusual success in preliminary trials with a new drug extracted from the South American erythrina bean.

Medical knowledge of prevention is even more meager. About all doctors know is that: 1) flies, mosquitoes, and perhaps rats can carry the virus; 2) healthy human carriers are common; 3) the dis ease is almost certainly transmitted through the mouth as well as the nose; 4) children's tonsils should not be removed during hot summer months.

Best advice for all: keep away from crowds, keep clean, keep rested.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.