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150
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
In December, 1911, the Board circulated a Memorandum to
Sanitary Authorities giving particulars of the symptoms of the
disease, its fatality, and methods of control that should be adopted.
As this Memorandum was of such importance, not only to
Health Authorities, but also to Medical Practitioners, containing
as it did information that could not be derived from ordinary
text books, I advised the Council that it would be most desirable
that every medical man in the Borough should possess a copy of
it. The Council agreed to this and a copy was sent to every
medical practitioner in the Borough.
The following extract from this Memorandum with reference
to the means to be adopted for the control of the disease was as
follows:—
"The possibility of administrative control over Polio-Myelitis
is greatly increased by active co-operation between the medical
officer of health and the medical practitioners in a district. In
view of the difficulty in diagnosing certain forms of Polio-Myelitis,
medical practitioners should be invited to confer with the medical
officer of health as to cases of anomalous illness; thus the medical
officer of health may be enabled to assist the practitioner with
information as to similar cases which may be in his possession.
"The Sanitary Authority 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 it has Becn shown experimentally that
the virus is present in the nasal mucous membrane, an antiseptic
solution should be applied by means of a spray to the throats and
nasal passages, not only of the patients, but of all persons brought
into contact with them. The virus can be killed experimentally
by a one per cent. solution of peroxide of hydrogen, or by a solution
of permanganate of potassium—1:500.
"All discharges from the patient as well as all articles which
may be soiled by such discharges should be immediately disinfected.