Community Chat

[June222]

Yes. I am 60 today.  My father had polio in his 30's a few years  before I was  born. He was paralyzed for a year and told he would never walk again. My father never gave up and although he had weakness in his left side and had to wear a brace and had a bad limp, he fought back and lived his life fully.  I as a child, never saw his limp until someone, a friend or such would ask what was wrong with my Dad....  I remember getting the liquid vaccine as a young child for polio. My father was first in line to vacinate the three of us.   Today he is almost 90, has had some issues with the polio causing more weakness so he has to use a motorized chair.   

[Vickiv]

I remember back in the 40's in August they would shut down the swimming pools. Everyone was afraid of getting Polio. My mother kept me away from any type of swimming places.

[Stray]

Yes, I remember it well. And polio is still pretty prevalent in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria...the CDC and WHO do a lot of work in those countries bringing vaccines to the people. I was pretty scared about the respirator and I remember Sr Kenny. The swimming itself probably helped because it is a virus and most likely it was the contact with large groups of people that spread the disease. It is highly contagious. I was in the health care profession but luckily did not have to deal with active polio but did come in contact with survivors with varying degrees of impairment, one woman confined to a respirator for life due to damaged respiratory muscles. As time went on respirators became smaller and portable but not in her time, a terrible existence but a very sweet lady. You are correct Sabin was OPV or oral polio vaccine and the Salk was IPV, injectable polio vaccine. Sabin has been discontinued but the injectable vaccine is still used.

[brii]

No, I don't remember polio. 

[Burnsite]

My father was an old-fashioned doctor, a GP.  M-F he had four daily hours of office calls (morning and afternoon) and two two-hour sessions of house calls (early AM and evening). As a preschooler, I often drove around with him during his morning house calls. Many of his patients had polio.

One of his patients was a student in my 3rd grade class but was confined to his home by polio. I don't know if he was in an iron lung, but he was dependent on a breathing apparatus. 

We drove to the ocean for swimming, but were not allowed to swim in ponds, which were plentiful in my town.  Fresh water was thought to be a factor in polio cases, especially in late summer when the bacteria count tends to be high.

Dr. Salk was his medical hero. 

ETA: We never saw "Billy", but he was linked by intercom to our classroom and he often contributed.  He was very, very smart.  He is still alive and a bit of a celebrity in his profession, though still greatly impaired by the polio.  

[cherry]

There was a little girl at my elementary school that had it. I felt so sorry for her in her braces and crutches

[Winifred]

Yes I do. I grew up in NC where it was rampant. My sis and I were sent to grandparents for the summer of 1949. It was a horrible disease which felled so many. Iron lungs were common health needs then. Thank goodness for Dr. Salk who developed a vaccine for it - sure has saved lives and disabling impact. Vaccines are indeed miracle workers.

[JeanLouiseFinch]

I vaguely remember it.  I remember lining up and get our pink medicine filled sugar cube - an eery likeness to the followers of Jim Jones who lined up for the Koolaid.  

From my childhood, I remember a lady in my neighborhood who had polio.  She was confined to her bed.  The house they lived in had a special staircase in front, to get her outside.  My friends and I would sometimes see the lady laying outside in her wheeled bed, on a nice day,   She had poor body/muscle control and couldn't keep her head still.  That was a bit offputting to us kids.  We were young and didn't understand at first.

[hckynutjohn]

Hi sunny,

I remember it well. 2 kids that lived in the Public Housing Projects in which I lived were stricken with it. It was somthing both kids and their parents feared for sure.

[hennypenny]

As  a chld I was rarely allowed in public pools.

My very best friend had had polio. She was in an iron lung. One of the hardest things for her was loosing her favorite teddy bear and doll.

Her father was a well known doctor and so she was able to be with him daily and had special access to her mother. Her leg was affected.

Her parents put in a pool so that she could have extensive exercise and mine did also, thinking that it would strengthen us. I remember when the news came over the radio about the vaccine my mother was driving. She pulled the car over and sobbed. My friend and I received the sugar cube version together. I still have the paper reciept.

-----ps. forgot to change font and color, hope everyone can read. It won't let me change what I have written.