Show national public health nurses day january 26 lue nral murnal public health nurses day will be observed throughout the country tomorrow the purpose of this observance is to acquaint the public with some of the fine work accomplished by our public health i nurses since what they do and what a community may think they do proves to be a great stumbling block according to gladyce L badger director of the nursing service of the american red rad cross our county nurse mrs harriet hopper is operating cooperating co with the plan to bring to the attention of parents the importance of watching their children carefully in order to detect symptoms of communicable muni cable diseases A timely article prepared by mrs hopper concerning the symptoms and treatment of the most deadly of all childrens diseases follows THE CRIPPLER to begin this talk on infantile paralysis I 1 would like to quote from crom a letter written by president roosevelt in answer to one from the president of the national foundation of infantile paralysis in which he said we face formidable enemies at home and abroad victory is achieved only at gre great a i t cost but victory is imperative pera tive on all fronts not until we have removed the shadow of the crippler from the future of every child can we furl the flags of battle and still the trumpets of attack the fight against infantile paralysis is a fight to the finish and the terms are unconditional surrender infantile paralysis commonly N known as the crippler or poliomyelitis is caused by an invisible I 1 germ which attacks the nerve sue of the spinal cored cord it kills the nerves and the result we get is ir a useless arm leg or inability to breathe or eat the muscles cannot work when the nerves governing them are dead or inactive continued on page four the crippler continued from page 1 foit anatoly the nerves are n more ore often rendered inactive than actually killed even inactive nerves are hard to regen regenerate rate so that the road to health is slowly gained after the invisible enemy has s truck struck how these germs enter the body has not yet been definitely determined but it is an accepted b bif M that we breathe or swallow tidal essl then only 7 to 14 days are needed for them to travel to the spinal cord and make the attack it may range in severity from mild to very severe attacks one attack mild or severe gives lifelong life long immunity there is absolutely ric no way of knowing who out of a large group of people will be attacked and who will not be affected figures taken from epidemics show us that infants children and a adults are all equally susceptible to the disease with slightly more boys than girls contracting it well developed well nourished healthy children are stricken as often as the poorly ri nourished uris fied type it is thought that excessive P h ya al strain and fati fatiga 1 I followed 51 c hilling chilling the body will make I 1 fsr tf E individual more susceptible to the germ this disease may occur any time of the year and in one case only or in an epidemic it is spread from one person to another by direct or indirect contact when infantile paralysis is known to be in a community every person in that city or town should avoid public gatherings symptoms of this disease are the same as for any disease that is known to be catching ri namely amely headache cold sore throat running nose fever nausea vomiting sleepiness and general feeling ing of not being well later sweating and irritability are no the body is irritable all over and the person who is ill HI does not wish to be touched nor moved even the jarring of the bed may be painful to the patient treatment consists first firs of the tha proper position of rest in bed beling under care of physician hos isolation and quarantine are possible fluids may need to be given into the veins as well as by mouth the iron iron lung when necessary and drugs to reduce the temperature are also important thus they are treated for the symptoms they have later however casts braces splints straps corsets crutches and pleasant attitude all play a very important part in polio victim well again 71 drugs are not considered a for poliomyelitis so we have the march of dimes and the presidents birthday ball to remind us that again it is time f for or each and every one of us to do all we can to help conquer the crip crippler ler perhaps you would like mw to know where the money you contribute to this cause is used one half of it is used here in i your own community to care for any person stricken by infantile paralysis regardless of creed color or race the other 50 per cent goes to the national foundation in new york to pay research workers who are giving their lives to find out what causes the disease what will prevent it and what will cure it Q fr 5 let us all give so me th i so that we can truly say 1 I helped to furl deurl the flags of battle and still the trumpets of attack on infantile paralysis references national foundation news nursing care of the patient with infantile paralysis the miracle of hickory communicable diseases text book tf idtse |