Abstract
The geographic and seasonal incidence and variations of poliomyelitis have been among the most interesting problems in the study of the epidemiology of this disease. Further, the preponderance of cases in children under the age of puberty with also a tendency towards a larger proportion of cases in males than in females is striking. Friedberger, Bock and Furstenheim 1 have called attention to antibody rise in relation to age and one may logically inquire what, if any, may be the physiological factors involved which may modify the susceptibility or resistance to infection with the virus of poliomyelitis. The work of Aycock 2 and of Shaughnessy, Harmon and Gordon 3 indicates that the serums of normal individuals, particularly adults, may in a high percentage of cases neutralize this virus. Aycock has suggested that different reactions to infection with poliomyelitis virus may be due to physiological variations in the host, rather than to variations in the virus itself. Further this author states that evidence that immunity to poliomyelitis is as common in warm climates as in cool climates led to the belief that the virus is probably as widely distributed in warm regions as in cool, and also that the lower incidence of the disease in warm regions is probably not due to a corresponding diminution of the virus in such regions. The work of the authors cited suggests that neutralizing substance for poliomyelitis virus found in the serums of normal people is of a specific nature and therefore due to exposure to the virus. This seems, of course, to be the most logical assumption.
The physiological effects of warm climates on man still constitute a subject for debate among scientists who have studied this problem.
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