Polio Up & Down

The worst infantile paralysis outbreak in British Isles history, as severe as the U.S. epidemics of 1916 and 1946, is sweeping England, Wales and Scotland, has already claimed more than 2,200 victims.

Because polio has long been relatively rare in Britain (there were minor outbreaks in 1926 and 1938), the people are highly vulnerable to the virus. The epidemic that began in mid-June spread quickly. While the Ministry of Health talked soothingly to keep down public alarm, medical officers quietly shut swimming pools and children's cinema shows, called off children's holiday trips, discouraged public meetings. But the epidemic has continued to rise, and doctors fear that it has not yet reached its peak.

In the U.S., meantime, the four-year polio epidemic--which last year mounted to more than 25,000 cases, close to 1916's record--seemed to be easing up. The polio toll so far this year (2,235 cases) is less than one-third of the total for the same period in 1946.

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