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148
randum of the Local Government Board, from which many of the
following facts have been taken. Already a number of local outbreaks
have occurred in this country and during the past year an outbreak
of considerable dimensions occurred in the West of England.
The symptoms of the disease vary with the localisation of the
virus, and may be very diverse in character; and in certain cases the
difficulty of diagnosis is great. Commonly 10 to 12 per cent, of the
attacks prove fatal; but in such an estimate much depends on the proportion
of mild or so-called " abortive " cases, which have been recognised.
Half of the patients who survive an attack of Polio-myelitis
are crippled for life. Experimental research on monkeys has shown
that it can be communicated through the respiratory and digestive
tracts. The disease presents an erratic character as regards infectivity
; in some instances it has developed after only slight or temporary
contact with a sufferer, and multiple attacks in households
are not uncommon ; in other instances children have been known to
sleep in the same bed with a patient and to escape infection.
The Chief Medical Officer of the Local Government Board
advises that Sanitary Authorities should be prepared to give facilities
for the examination, by competent bacteriologists, of material derived
from the sick. It is important that precautionary measures should
be taken in all suspected cases. As the virus is present in the nasa.
passages an antiseptic solution should be applied by means of a spray,
not only to the nose and throat of the patient but of all persons
brought into contact. A solution of permanganate of potassium, 1 in
500, suffices to kill the virus, experimentally. All discharges from
the patient as well as all articles which may be soiled by such discharges
should be immediately disinfected. The sick should be
isolated from the healthy; and if appropriate isolation and nursing
cannot be obtained at home, the patient should be treated in an
Isolation Hospital. The sick room and its contents should be disinfected
at the end of the illness. No child should be allowed to
attend school from an infected family