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(vi) Investigation - There is a thorough search for
sick persons, especially children, to locate
unrecognised and unreported cases.
(vii) Treatment - There is no specific treatment other
than attention to prevention and management of
paralysis.
B - EPIDEMIC MEASURES.
(i) Notice to general practitioners of increased
incidence of the disease.
(ii) Isolation in bed of all children with fever, pending
diagnosis.
(iii) Education of the public in personal hygiene in
order to prevent spread of the disease through
transmission of infectious discharges.
(iv) Protection of children so far as practicable
against unnecessary close contact with other persons
especially with other family groups or outsiders
during epidemic prevalence of the disease.
Urban schools should not be closed or opening
delayed but intensive or competitive athletic
programmes should be postponed.
(v) Postponement of nose or throat operations where
practicable.
(vi) Avoidance by children of excessive physical strain.
(vii) Postponement of inoculation against diphtheria,
whooping cough, etc.
(viii) Avoidance of unnecessary travel and visiting.
SOME FACTS ABOUT THE VACCINE AND ITS PREPARATION.
It was only as recently as 1949 that it was discovered
that the poliomyelitis virus would grow and multiply in
cells other than the nerve cells of man or monkey. Only
cells of the kidneys of man or monkey will allow the virus
to multiply to an extent sufficient to permit the making
of a vaccine.
The vaccine will probably be a "killed" vaccine
although search is being carried out for a "living attentuated"
vaccine. "Attentuation" means deprivation of power
to produce disease without actually killing the virus.
The first process in the production of the vaccine is
the careful examination of the monkeys to exclude any concurrent
disease such as tuberculosis.