A COMMUNITY STUDY OF CARRIERS IN EPIDEMIC POLIOMYELITIS 1

Abstract

This study was undertaken to determine the distribution of poliomyelitis virus in the population at risk in a community during an epidemic of the disease. A community of 181 persons in Alabama was selected for a combined clinical and laboratory study. Clinical histories from 117 adults, and 64 juveniles, showed that in the adult group, 33 had poorly defined ailments, whereas, in the juvenile group, 2 children had paralytic poliomyelitis, 10 had abortive poliomyelitis, and 17 had febrile illnesses. 190 stools from 176 persons were tested in Macacus rhesus monkeys for the detection of the virus of poliomyelitis. Of the stools tested, 5 from 3 individuals (2 to 6 yrs. of age) were found to be positive. Subsequent stools from these children were tested until negative. In attempting to correlate the history of illnesses in the juvenile group with the few positive results obtained by the use of present methods it was evident that the study was undertaken somewhat late in the course of the epidemic (49-82 days after the onset of the first and last clinically recognized cases). Though evidence of poliomyelitis was widespread in the human herd, only persons ill at the end of the epidemic provided positive stools, indicating that the ease of detection of the virus in the population at risk diminishes with the decline of the epidemic.