Polio: It Kept Us Awake At Night
By Tom Morrow
As children, growing up in the forties and fifties had its particular worries. We had just gotten through a War and soon entered into another conflict — Korea. On the home-front the government kept reminding us the Russians could drop the bomb at any time.
Fear of “the bomb” taught us how to protect ourselves by diving under our school desks. But what really kept us awake at night was the fear of getting “Polio.”
Summers in Iowa brought on a wave of new polio cases, especially in the cities. Young victims were reported by the hundreds. Swimming pools seemed to be a common factor among those afflicted. Mom forbid my sister and me to go swimming. I was in junior high before I ever stepped into anything deeper than a bathtub.
Polio, short for “poliomyelitis,” or “infantile paralysis,” is an infectious disease caused by the “polio virus.” It is a muscle weakness resulting in an inability to physically move. This can occur over a few hours to a few days to a lifetime. The weakness most often involves the legs, but may less commonly involve the muscles of the head, neck and diaphragm.
In 1921, Americans became readily aware of polio when future New York governor and later President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was stricken. He never was able to walk again. Throughout the 40s and 50s. Roosevelt established the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, a money-raising campaign to fight the disease. The “The March of Dimes,” was the primary fund-raiser.
While many victims fully recovered, up to 5 percent of children and 30 percent of adults died. Another 25 percent have minor symptoms such as fever and a sore throat, and up to 5 percent have headache, neck stiffness and pains in the arms and legs. Of course, we never heard of those cases. Newspapers, especially, would run front-page articles with photos of kids in “iron lungs” or those trying to walk with braces on their legs, and/or using crutches.
In my little town polio hit one particular family hard. Of the family’s three children, all were victims with crippling result. First, the 12-year-old girl was crippled, and within a few months her two high-school aged brothers were victims. All three had to use leg braces and crutches. As far as I know, if they’re still alive they’re probably still crippled.
That family’s tragedy frightened all of us in school. Personally, knowing each of them was especially worrying. Thankfully, no other students or town folk were victims.
Poliovirus is usually spread from person to person through infected food or water containing human feces and less commonly from infected saliva. Those who are infected may spread the disease for up to six weeks even if no symptoms are present.
The disease may be diagnosed by finding the virus in the feces or detecting antibodies against it in the blood. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends polio vaccination boosters for travelers and those who live in countries where the disease is occurring. Once infected there is no specific treatment. In 2018, there were 33 cases of polio and 104 cases of vaccine-derived polio world-wide. This is down from 350,000 cases in 1988. In 2018, the disease was spread between people only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. As of last December, there have been only 125 cases of polio and 241 cases of vaccine-derived polio reported.
Poliomyelitis has existed for thousands of years. The disease was first recognized as a distinct condition in 1789, and the virus that causes it was first identified in 1908. In the 20th century it became one of the most worrying childhood diseases in the U.S. and Europe.
We had a sigh of relief when the first polio vaccine was developed in the mid-50s by Dr. Jonas Salk of La Jolla, and a few years later Dr. Albert Sabin developed his vaccine. The World Health Organization says vaccination efforts and early detection of cases has resulted in near-global eradication of the disease. The world-wide civic organization of Rotary International has contributed money each year in an effort of eradicate the disease world-wide. With Rotarians’ help, that task is close to realization. However, I doubt that polio will be completely stamped out.
Circa 1956, Dr. Salk’s vaccine was given to everyone in our school system, and, not taking any chances, a couple years later we all were given Dr. Sabin’s vaccine, which was soaked into a sugar cube.
We got the needle with Salk’s remedy. As for Sabin’s vaccine, no doubt “Mary Poppins” took her que of helping “the medicine go down” by soaking it in a sugar cube. A sweet closure to more than a decade of being scared out of our wits. We all slept better.