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"Warm Springs" The Fight Against Infantile
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15 | Many times an operation will help; in many cases a new piece of orthopedic equipment such as a brace, corset, new crutches, canes, specially constructed shoes, or wheel chairs are required. | |
16 | The majority of these cases receive aid from the local committees, and those who come within the broad requirements of admission of the Institution at Warm Springs are accepted for special treatment, the results of which become available to the entire medical profession. | |
17 | This in brief is a summary of the actual practical work of the Foundation's coordinative task. | |
18 | But what about stamping this disease -- why cannot something be clone, you ask -- why must we go on having this disease? Great strides have been made in tuberculosis, in diphtheria, smallpox, yellow fever, typhoid -- why not Infantile Paralysis? | |
19 | This is the heart of the entire problem. In 1935, recognizing this, the Trustees of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation recommended that it receive no part of that year's fund. Seventy per cent remained in the communities and the other 30 per cent was given by the President to a specially created Research Commission which was made up of 11 outstanding citizens in the country. | |
20 | This Commission appointed an Advisory Committee of four prominent researchers and bacteriologists. It has done a remarkable job. It has studied in great detail every applicant for research assistance, and financial grants have been made to approximately 15 of the leading laboratories of the nation in this long, arduous job. | |
21 | Today, as a result of this, the Research Commission is extremely hopeful about the solutions which have been prepared in the form of nasal sprays, and the United States Public Health Service, working with the Foundation, is also optimistic that at last a method has been discovered which will help ward off the disease during epidemic periods. | |
22 | This effort may fail as have others in the past, for the simple reason that as yet how the disease is carried, why it flares up periodically every year, where it breeds, why it breeds, what it lives on and all of the elementary questions propounded are still in the dark field of the unknown. | |
23 | But some day medical science, human ingenuity, grit and determination will win and it will be brought under control. | |
24 | By giving freely of your time and effort you become a crusader, you become a "Warm Springser," you join with the President in the full knowledge of the severity of the fight and you become a part of a battle which must be won. | |
25 | Warm Springs is a symbol of a great humanitarian ideal to which the Americans of today and of the future will feel grateful. |