Children should not be subjected to operations on the nose and throat during a polio epidemic, Dr. George W. McCoy, director of public health at the Louisiana State university medical school warned the public today.
Dr. McCoy, who recently returned from Chicago, where he had been invited by the Chicago health department to assist in polio epidemic control, said that studies show a higher frequency of plio among children with tonsil operations within 60 days.
"Not only is there a higher rate among these children but a greater number of the critical bulbar cases seemed to develop," he said. "The bulbar type of polio is that in which the respiratory system is paralyzed. "A recent review of reports on tonsil operations and poliomyelitis listed no less than 259 cases, mostly of the bulbar type, following tonsil ectomies up to 60 days in various parts of the country between 1910 and 1943.'
Dr. McCoy also emphasized the probability of transmission of poliomyelitis by patient-to-patient contact, quoting from a recent paper by Dr. Albert E. Casey, epidemiologist for the Chicago health department, who invited Dr. McCoy to Chicago. Dr. Casey was stationed in New Orleans until 1942 with the LSU medical school's pathology department.
"In a survey described by Dr. Casey 80 per cent of the polio cases could be traced to patient-to - patient contact, whether through the mechanical use of hands, mouth, nose, insect or other methods.' said Dr. McCoy.
