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Show Nation Urged to Wage War On Infantile Paralysis as Summertime Approaches By Frederick M. Kirby . By taeeial New Isrvle. NKW YORK. Jan t "To tarn as the precautions that ought to be taken by the health aalhorttle and the people of the nation against a epidemic of Infantile paralysis this summer, the answer Is contained la lust two words CLEAN UP!" This I what Dr. Charles E. Bol-duaa, Bol-duaa, director of the karea of public health education of New York the man who battled with the terrible epidemic epi-demic of poliomyelitis la this city last summer has to say a boat preventive pre-ventive measure against tha diss for the co ml of summer. "When I started to writ a tittl pamphlet oa what the epidemic of last summer had taught a, I was compelled to confess almost at once that It had NOT taught a the vital thing that we mast know, and that Is, How I tha disss a spread from par-Kin par-Kin to person? "Until w know that, we cannot combat the disease efficiently. We hara learned carta! things. bowSTSr, that ar valuable and that wilt be of ase to cities whers the dlsaese appear ap-pear la epidemic torsi this summer If It doe appear. "la the first plac. so far as Nsw York I concerned, ws are not likely to have the diae In epidemic form again this year. The disease which swept tb city last summer burned out most of the living material on which It could feed. What may haa- children la tb fresh air. If possible; to wash the children mouth oat; to give them plain boiled water to drink; to be careful of their diet; to let the children have plenty of rest; to report case promptly-all these things they did. "The thins; ws mast seek bow I the method of spread of the disease. That It la communicable haa heea proved by the studies of Flexacr at th Rockefeller laboratory. "Ws kow the vim of th disease I a living germ, and that It 1 extremely ex-tremely minute la iso; so small, in fact, that It cannot be seen with the ordinary high powered bacteriological microscope. "If piece of fresh spinal cord from a person dead of infant!! paralysis I crushed up and mixed with a little stertls salt solution, and If th miliar mil-iar la then Injected Into monkey, the aam typical symptom follow. "If before aa Injection th mix-tare mix-tare I heated for an hoar to about (0 degree Centigrade, and If thea It I produced. In other words, th beat-leg beat-leg haa killed the germ. rThla Indicates tha living aatur of the virus. "Prom th monkey - which hav been Injected with living virus and which hav died of the Infection splnsl cord tissue can be obtained which, similarly Infected, will produce similar sim-ilar results la a whole series of mon- k.ve Allium. h tha llvine nctu of pea la other cities, however, I a question. ques-tion. "On vary important thine did happen hap-pen her a a result of pollomyellti outbreak. Ia spite of the fact that the disease caused about 100 deaths, snd In addltloa that we had about 2000 additional death from the outbreak out-break of 'grippe' In th early part of ll, the leaeral death rat for th city for th year 111 was lower then the precedln year. "I attribute thia to the thorough Yleanup' which waa started bv th Tiealih authorities daring th poliomyelitis poliomye-litis outbreak. "The people were friahleaed. They obeyed orders ot th letter. When ' we told them to keep their ehtldra dean) to obaervs health ralesthey did so. . "Whets w told them to keep their children out of crowded place, they did so. Whewtolhenokenthe the germ I thus proved. It ha beea difficult to Isolate It or racognlae It. "Tha disease Is evideatiy one aaAnst which a large aamber of people peo-ple ar Immune, and on explanation of tbia fact I that infantil paralysis paraly-sis I a disease which la the vast majority ma-jority of case proceed without TO-durlng TO-durlng paralysis. "la wither word. It ha beea thought that many mild case of Infantil In-fantil paralysis pass year after year aa merely a 'little cold' or aa 'upset stomach,' aot being recognlxed as poliomyelitis. "Isolation of patients, prompt reporting re-porting of nil suspicious cases, cleanliness, clean-liness, the preventing of contact between be-tween children In movlea, schools, chnrcbe and so on. mast be relied upon to prevent spread of the disease dis-ease when once It makes Its appear-aara appear-aara Above all, city authorities and parent should concentrate oa th two words. CUBAN VP." |