| OCR Text |
Show August Begins Polio Season Savant Warns With Utah's "1947 Polio Season" Sea-son" following in the wage of August "dog days," Dr. Louis P. Gebhardt, professor of bacteriology bacteri-ology at the University of Utah, lists a few simple precautions that parents should take in safeguarding their children from this disease. Practical Rules Listed Observation of these practical rules will lessen the possibility of your child becoming a polio victim: 1. A child under ten should get not less than ten hours sleep. 2. He should avoid fatigue and chilling. Too strenuous exercise will cause the virus to "sting" like a wasp if it happens to be in the nose or throat. 3. An. adequate diet should be given. 4. Keep flies away from food. Children should not eat out-of-doors if flies are in evidence. evi-dence. All foods that are eat en raw should be first washed wash-ed with soap and water. 5. The child's hands should always be washed before eating, eat-ing, even before eating bread and butter or an apple in-between meals. 6. Don't allow children to play in areas where sewage may be a problem. 7. Spray garbage cans with DDT to help eliminate flies and always keep a lid on garbage gar-bage cans. Dr. Gebhart also advises parents par-ents to be watchful for illnesses that are marked by fever, loss of appetite, nausea or vomiting or stiffness of the neck, it might be polio. "Do not try to diagnose symptoms yourselves," warns Dr. Gebhardt, "Consult a doctor." Despite the severity of a first degree case of polio, parents should beware of panic and remember that in Utah's worst epidemic, in 1943, only four in a thousand children were polio patients, and . of these, only a fraction were par-alized par-alized or died. "The crippling effects of polio can be minimized mini-mized and even eliminated in some cases if prompt attention from a qualified physician is procured," reported Dr. Gebhardt. Geb-hardt. It is cleanliness, a watchful watch-ful eye and a cool head that will do the most in combating polio beyond the ward rooms of a hospital. |
