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Show $ Polio Drive Goes On I Through This Month 5ii00.2; The March of Dimes is swinging aIo,ig, and townspeople are being asked to give their dimes and dol-;T; dol-;T; lars t0 help the right on infantile S dtf, paralysis. That"'- This year it is the tenth birth-"M birth-"M day of the National Foundation for L5-' Infantile Paralysis that gives r3 special emphasis to the annual SbuS campaign for funds to help polio tri patients and to wipe out this le5'H treacherous disease. The campaign, y : which is now in progress, also em- phasizes the fact that for the last five years polio incidence, in the rj United States, has been the high-. high-. est for any similar period in the nation's history. Approximately 80,000 Americans, mostly children, " have been stricken with the dis-j dis-j i ease in the last five years alone, (j! ' There has been no letup by the disease. There must be no letup in : the fight against it. No one knows f what lies ahead, or where and for how long polio may strike in years .Oh1 to come. Last summer drove home one sad but undeniable fact that rfi polio knows no boundaries. Our . f, troops stationed in Europe and the t Pacific were stricken, as were '; children and adults in Boise, Ak-a Ak-a ron, Los Angeles, and other cen ters of the 1947 outbreaks. For some areas, the 1947 epidemic was the first in years; for others, it was consecutive. After ten years, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis has won the heart of every American Ameri-can by its championing of the cause of polio victims. Without considering age, creed, color or race, the National Foundation has earned the confidence of all ty its help for patients afflicted by this widespread disease. The National Foundation helps pay the bills that pile up for the families of infantile paralysis patients. pa-tients. It sees to it that the best available medical and hospital care is provided. And so important in the long view it is sponsoring extensive programs of research and technical education. Research is gradually narrowing the field in the hunt for the complete answers an-swers to infantile paralysis, and it will be simply a matter of time before those answers are at hand. Professional education assures a supply of pediatricians, nurses and physical therapists trained in the techniques that are peculiar to this disease. |