Senior Enters Mass. Hospital to Under go Observation for Polio

The Hygiene Department yesterday confirmed reports that a Winthrop House senior is now under observation at the Massachusetts General Hospital with a suspected attack of polio.

The student, Vernon B. Thomas '56, has no reported paralysis, but has "symptoms that are indistinguishable from polio," Dana L. Farnsworth, Director of University Health Services, said yesterday.

All students who might have been closely exposed to Thomas were given gamma globulin yesterday to shore up their powers of resistence, Farnsworth reported. There will be no quarantine action by the College.

Thomas was first suspected of having polio Tuesday night, Farnsworth said, and was immediately placed in the Massachusetts General Hospital.

The Director of Health Services said that the department was attempting to keep track of all cases of polio in the area, and requested that all students having any suspicion they might have symptoms of the disease report immediately to the Hygiene Department.