Polio

It is polio season again. Everywhere, health officials are worrying over reports by the Public Health Service that cases are running ahead of last year, which was bad enough. Actually, it is still too soon to tell how most of the U.S. will fare this year. But there is no doubt that Texas is in the grip of a severe epidemic. No fewer than 860 cases have been reported there since the beginning of the "disease year" in late March (compared with 280 a year ago). Houston, with the rest of Harris County, is especially hard hit.

It was in Houston, therefore, that the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis decided to conduct its biggest test of an inoculation which may make polio milder if it strikes and save the victim from permanent paralysis. There is no evidence that it can prevent polio. The material to be inoculated is gamma globulin, a blood fraction which contains antibodies against several diseases (TIME, Nov. 5). Tried in Provo, Utah on a scale too small to be decisive (TIME, April 28), it is to be given this week to half of 35,000 Houston youngsters aged one to six; the other half--the "control group" --will get innocuous gelatin.

Meanwhile, for parents who actually have to face the responsibility of handling an attack of polio, there was some sound advice from Manhattan Pediatrician Philip M. Stimson. Until recently, wrote Dr. Stimson in the A.M.A. Journal, all the emphasis was on rushing every suspected case of polio to the hospital at once. Now that there are more facilities for diagnosing and treating polio, this is no longer necessary or even desirable.

In the first place, from 10% to 30% of suspected cases admitted to hospitals turn out not to have polio at all. And even in confirmed cases, says Dr. Stimson, home care at first is often better because the patient is saved fatigue, excitement and excessive handling. These, in the early stages, can aggravate the disease. Since most patients are children, a mother's care is best, anyway, and there is a further advantage in having the regular family doctor remain in charge, though he may want to call in a specialist for help. Finally, home care of the milder, nonparalytic cases saves money and leaves hospitals free for the more serious cases, which must be hospitalized.

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