The worst infantile paralysis outbreak since 1916 gripped the U.S. last week. The U.S. Public Health Service reported 738 new cases for the week ending July 29—the highest number for any week since P.H.S. began keeping such records 15 years ago. The 1944 total so far was 3,315 cases, nearly 1,000 more than in the same period of 1943.
Hardest hit were New York (946 cases), North Carolina (441) and Kentucky (341). The outbreak hit relatively lightly in New York City (177 cases), but it struck with heavy force at Buffalo, which had nearly twice as many cases. Other cities showing an alarming polio rise: Pittsburgh (a record-tying 56 cases), Detroit (71).
The epidemic has attacked a group of Midwestern states—Ohio, Indiana, Michigan—which normally have been relatively immune. Brightest spot was the South. In North Carolina the disease seemed to be subsiding. Texas, hardest hit in the nation last year, has been singularly free.
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