The East Hartford Gazette

New Polio Carrier Suspect

East Hartford has thus far fortunately escaped the serious outbreak of polio across the nation.
The number of polio cases in the United States in 1949 exceeds those of the same period for the previous year by nearly forty per cent. The increase has not been apparent in all the states but there have been 6,339 cases up to the last week in July as compared with 4,580 in the same period in 1948. Only Delaware and Utah were without a single case in the week for which the figures are available.
It is reassuring to know that the annual March of Dimes, celebrating the birthday of the late Franklin D. Roosevelt, raises a considerable sum to treat those afflicted by the dread disease and to permit scientific study of its origin and treatment.
So far as we know, the experts have been unable to discover exactly how the disease spreads. There are many theories. The latest we have heard of comes from Dr. L. E. Rector of St. Louis, who reports that moles show unusual susceptibility to the polio virus in laboratory inoculations. Moreover, certain facts about the ground mole raise the suspicion that it might be a natural host.
The mole is found throughout the temperate and tropical zones, which would explain the tendency of the disease to start and have a higher incidence in rural rather than in urban populations; it would also account for the seasonal tendency in man because the mole comes out on the surface of the ground in hot weather, and the tiny animal is so inconsequential as to have escaped competent scientific observation up to date.