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Show POl'K P.K! .JOI5S KOK TIIK DIM K The Tight against polio calls for more effort, not h'SS, in the year ahead. Why? P.eeause polio hasn't been licked yet. Here are four big reasons why this is so and why the March of Dimes miisl continue to grt our enthusiastic support. Thousands of polio patients are still being stricken. Most of these people need March of Dimes aid, and they add heavily to chapter rolls already swollen by those being be-ing helped by the National Foundation for Infantile Pa ralysis as lii.")(i opened. Medical care financed by the March of Dimes has brought about a dramatic decrease in the death toll of polio. In 194."), for example, the case-fatality case-fatality rate (ratio of death to the total number of new cases )j stood at 8.7 per cent; by it. had been brought down b' more than oO per cent to 4.2. But the care that makes this possible costs money. And the care that is required by those who are saved costs even more, in many instances running into thousands thous-ands of dollars for one patient, to make life worth living. Thousands of the most seriously stricken depend on iron lungs and other mechanical aids supplied out of March of Dimes funds for every breath they draw. Cutting Cut-ting down on that program would be like pulling out the electric plug on an iron lung. Research work can't be cut either. The Salk vaccine was, a scientific break-through lint one which must be widened and followed up. Other, still better vaccines may emerge from additional research. Vaccine, moreover, is not the only objective of research. The National Foundation Founda-tion seeks new drugs for polio prevention and treatment, and new techniques to aid in rebuilding crippled bodies. Finally, there's a pressing need for more trained manpower' at treatment centers. That need will continue for a long time to come. Children now being crippled must not become -forgotten casualties when the long fight to conquer polio is finally won. And that fight cannot be won unless we give generously gener-ously to the March of Dimes, bet's get on with the job and the March now. |