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Today is World Polio Day. Only 3 countries remain polio-endemic, meaning there are only 3 places in the world-Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria- where this virus is still routinely circulating and entrenched. They have been satellite outbreaks in other countries, but all link back to one of these places. This is a major achievement! Polio left children temporarily and in many cases permanently paralyzed. If the virus struck neuron that coordinator muscles related to breathing, breathing would stop (as would life, at that point!). Polio was targeted early in the development of vaccines, driven in part by American mothers who were terrified for their children's safety, and in part by initiatives begun by Roosevelt, who himself was left paralyzed by polio.
I would like to share some images of the news that a polio vaccine had been generated and was now available. They are very impactful. As I discussed with a colleague last summer, when both of our sons had a virus that presented as an annoying, naggy fever, we were lucky to be conversing as annoyed mothers rather than terrified ones. Summertime fevers 60 years ago meant something very different.
Jonas Salk becomes a national hero
Enormous lines formed to receive a dose of the polio vaccine
Because people didn't want their children's lungs paralyzed, causing them to require "iron lungs"
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