| Show f Your Doctor Says The following ol U to s one une o of oa a II series edes o ol 01 articles or or- tides written b by members member of the Ih Utah Ulah teh I State stat Medical Association and od published In cooper cooperation llio with your 0 local newspaper These The articles are ar scheduled to 10 appear every I other ocher week throughout the h. h year ear t. t In fn an as ort e to co better beun acquaint you with wyth h problems problem o of he health lh and deli n designed e JO to 10 Improve the she h. h weli well being being ol of I the people of 01 Ula Utah Poliomyelitis Poliomyelitis is a very old disease of mankind Evidence Is available that it existed at least BC B.C. Experimental work did not begin however on this disease agent until 1008 when Landsteiner Land- Land steiner and Popper were successful successful successful success success- ful in transmitting the disease to monkeys Nature of the Virus The live producing disease agent isa Isa is isa a virus belonging to the same sameI I group of disease agents that produce produce produce pro pro- duce measles mumps y yellow fever influenza and encephalitis Viruses differ from bacteria in I several respects Bacteria germs or microbes cause diseases such as scarlet fever bolls boils and abscesses abscesses abscesses ab ab- diphtheria whooping cough and a host of other types of infection Bacteria can be seen with the aid of an ordinary micro micro- scope Bacteria will grow not only in the body but also may be cultured cul cut tuned on lifeless food such as meat broth milk and various other foodstuffs Viruses on the other hand are Invisible under the ordinary or or- ordinary microscope and will wUl pass through filters that hold back or retain b bacteria The polio virus is one of the tiniest known disease agents being a little less than one two-millionth two of an inch in diameter The polio virus like Uke other viruses falls faUs to grow unless living tissue cells are available for tor food This virus has a special attraction to nerve cells of the spinal cord and the base of the brain Destruction of these nerve cells causes paralysis Cultivation of ot the Virus Man is the only naturally susceptible sus sus- host Monkeys can be given givers the disease experimentally but guinea pigs rabbits rats etc ete are completely resistant These latter resistant animals can be injected with thousands of at monkey paralytic doses of at the virus with no illness whatever developing Monkeys therefore are the only dependable experimental expert mental animal that can be bo used laed nor for the study of this thU disease Since monkeys cost 3 each and their Ir care Is Is expensive the cost of poliomyelitis research U Is tant The dimes donated to the Use Vie Cold Water Wate Use UI cold water on utensils which hive have had hid the following foods to o loosen loolen them most mOlt effectively milk egg 11 cheese chee or dough National Foundation for Paralysis has made possible the money for research and purchase of at these expensive experimental animals Another method of virus culture has been devised by Dr J. J F. F Enders of ot Harvard University This method consists of growing monkey or human tissue cells ina Ina In a special fluid in test tubes Virus Is la added to these growing cells and the virus attacks and destroys the cells in from five to seven I days This tissue culture method I is less lesa expensive than using using I monkeys but certain kinds of research research research re- re search must still sWI require the animal animal ani ani- mal testing method This tissue culture virus is the one which is being used to develop a preventive preventive preventive tive vaccine Where the Virus Is III Found The virus of poliomyelitis may be Isolated from the throat and from the fecal material of persons per per-i sons ill to with the disease and from nervous tissue of persons' persons dying of the disease The virus may also be isolated from sewage particularly during the summer months The virus seems to be quite hardy and resistant staying alive in sewage water for several months It can be stored for many years in the ice dry-ice box The virus Is Is however quickly destroyed by boiling a minute or two and also is destroyed by strong chemicals such as formaldehyde formal formal- The virus Is not affected by any presently known antibiotics anti anti- antibiotics such as penicillin aureo aureo- etc ete Types of 01 Viruses Three types of poliomyelitis viruses have been Isolated Each one produces the same type of disease in man there being no distinguishing features of the disease with any of at the types Any Anyone one of the three types may mays I produce death in one person an i an-i I Iother i iother other person may be severely paralyzed while again with the same virus type another individual individual ual develops such mUd mild symptoms that a diagnosis is impossible On recovery from the disease the tin produced by Type 1 will wUl offer no immunity for tor Types Type 21 2 or 3 Therefore the Immunity produced produced produced pro pro- in man or monkeys is epe specific cUlo for tor each type and theoretically theoretically theoretically theoretic theoretic- ally one could have the disease three times Recovery from one type will wUI produce a lifelong immunity im for that specific specUla type About 73 70 of ot the adult population have had the disease in such a mUd mild form that they have not been aware of the Ill Illness ill ill- ness tress and are Immune to the ape ape- type which produce the disease t rr |
