What is the TREATMENT?

If, during the course of an epidemic, any suspicious illness should develop in a member of your family, prompt medical attention and observation are important. If any sign or symptom of polio is present, the affected person should be hospitalized immediately. Hospitals have many special forms of equipment which are necessary in treatment. Trained nursing care is essential. Should paralysis appear, special measures are necessary to prevent or lessen deformity and to begin the rebuilding of the affected parts of the body. No clearly reliable specific drug is available as yet which will cure polio, but gamma globulin appears to give some degree of protection for several weeks against the paralysis stage of the disease. There are now strong hopes that a vaccine is now available that will give immunity against polio for a whole season.

At the present time treatment of the disease takes many forms. While a patient is recovering from a polio attack, a full nourishing diet, application of various forms of heat and massage, special baths and exercises, are the measures which are most helpful in restoring usefulness to affected arms or legs. Specially built shoes or braces are required in only a few cases, and surgical operations have been devised to return motion and function to the arms or legs of some patients.

Treatment must be continued over long periods of time in some cases, but the results are often very rewarding. The expense of such long treatment is great. Fortunately, an awakened public, through its contributions to the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and other Agencies, has helped thousands to bear this expense. Support of these organizations in their sincere and unselfish aims is a splendid public service in the battle against polio.