Dimes, Right Wheel!

Over the neat signature of Lawyer Basil O'Connor, 66, its first and perennial president (since 1938), the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis sent out word last week that it will soon make "the first announcement of our plans" for a new program--now that victory over paralytic poliomyelitis has been substantially achieved. The plans, said O'Connor, "have been many years in the making." He might have added that ever since the Salk vaccine, developed with N.F.I.P. funds, was recognized as a weapon capable of preventing the worst ravages of polio, the roar of speculation about what the foundation would do next has been almost loud enough to drown out the annual March of Dimes (354 million this year).

But O'Connor's well-laid and supposedly secret plans had leaked in widening Manhattan medical circles. The marching dimes will right wheel. From facing an infectious disease and its complications, they will turn to attack arthritis and malformations that are present at birth. Though utterly different in origin, these disorders have something in common with paralytic polio--they cause long-term if not lifelong disablement, require vast sums for costly care of helpless victims. The N.F.I.P. sees these targets as first of a series, hopes to conquer them by the same blitz tactics that it used against polio, then move against other diseases that cause permanent disability--with its resulting family and social problems.

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