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Show Fight Against Polio Plans Being Considered The sharp, unexpected increase in-crease in polio cases this past summer has made urgent early organization to. insure that the nex,t March of Dimes drive will be the greatest in history, Mrs. Anthon. B. Christensen, county March of Dimes chairman, declared de-clared today. Returning from a regional pre-campaign meeting of March of Dimes chairmen, directors and workers held in Salt Lake, Mrs. Christensen said: "We heard both good news and bad news at the meeting. A staggering, total of around 4,000 new cases a week at summer's sum-mer's end piled up a burdensome burden-some total. There are indications 1952 will have over 50.000 cases of polio, far exceeding the record-breaking year of 1949. "The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis is meeting the emergency with all of its resources. Medical care is available avail-able for all patients with financial fi-nancial assistance provided for those . needing euch aid. Drain 1 on chapter funds, however, is terrific. I "Plans therefore have been made to rercruit the greatest I force of workers ever enrolled in ,the March of Dimes, so that the drive from Jan. 2 through Jan. 31 will arise the added funds which must be contributed contribut-ed this year. We must continue to care for the thousands and tthousands of victims who have known the .tragedy of infantile paralysis and at the same time pursue the now-promising search for polio preventive." The summary of the situation is reported as follows: The bad news: Polio is rolling up a much higher total of cases than in 1951. The good news: The fight against polio at last seems on the road to' scientific success. Announcements of an imrjortant nature in the field of research may "be expected soon. Paramount importance of early ear-ly organization was stressed at the meeting. Speakers were enthusiastic en-thusiastic over the success of the drive last year and there was unanimous expression that many more workers will join the March of Dimes of 1953. Millions of dollars are needed to care for patients and to keep up the ceaseless program of research re-search and professional educa-i tion, U was said. One of the features of the 1953 campaign will be a greatly expanded "Mothers' March on Polio," in which over two million mil-lion women are expected to participate. par-ticipate. Those attending the meeting represented the states of Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Nevada. Ne-vada. New Mexico and Colorado. Colo-rado. An interesting highlight of the meeting was the address on "Research "Re-search in Poliomyelitis" given jby Dr. Louis P. Gebhardt of Salt Lake City, professor of bacteriology, bac-teriology, Department of Bacteriology, Bac-teriology, College of Medicine, University of Utah. |