Vaccinate: POLIO Notable Survivors, Serious Disease Prevalent Until Vaccine Developed In Mid-1950s

[appalachiablue]

- The Iron Lung ward for polio patients at a hospital in Calif., c. 1953.
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PBS American Masters, "Polio & Famous People Who Survived It." Excerpts, Ed.

.. - What is Polio?

Also known as infantile paralysis because it mostly affects children under the age of five, polio is a viral, infectious disease spread by humans that can inflame the central nervous system. While the infection normally causes no symptoms, some people have suffered its worst symptom, paralysis. When breathing muscles are affected, polio can lead to death.

In the U.S., there were major epidemics in 1916 and in the 1940s and 1950s. Children and adults paralyzed by polio often lost movement in their breathing muscles and were kept alive by being placed in an “iron lung,” or negative pressure ventilator, which served to contract and expand their lungs to intake and expel air. People often recovered use of their breathing muscles over time. Some experienced full recovery, while others would need to use a wheelchair or crutches for the rest of their lives.

- Famous Polio Survivors

Among the famous survivors of polio are President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who contracted polio in 1921 at the age of 39 and used a wheelchair thereafter, though he attempted to hide his paralysis during public appearances. Tanaquil Le Clercq, the New York City ballet soloist who contracted the disease in 1956 at the age of 27, at first needed to be placed in an iron lung, but she recovered to a point where she could move freely using a wheelchair.

Actress Mia Farrow contracted polio in the 1950s at the age of nine and used an iron lung while hospitalized for eight months before recovering. Other polio survivors include actors Alan Alda and Donald Sutherland; musicians Itzhak Perlman, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell; and photographer Dorothea Lange, who like Tanaquil Le Clercq, is the subject of an American Masters film in 2014 (Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning)...

Full Article,
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/tanaquil-le-clercq-public-figures-and-american-masters-who-survived-polio/3063/
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- LIST OF POLIO SURVIVORS:

Poliomyelitis (often simply called polio) is an acute viral infection that involves the gastrointestinal tract and occasionally the central nervous system. Poliovirus is acquired by faecal–oral or oral transmission. Prior to the introduction of a vaccine in 1955, infection was common, with epidemics during the summer and autumn of temperate countries. An eradication programme has reduced the number of reported polio cases worldwide by more than 99% since the mid-1980s.



- Disability rights activist Judith Heumann had to take legal action to be allowed to become a teacher.

Most infections are asymptomatic; a small number cause a minor illness that is indistinguishable from many other viral illnesses; less than 1% result in acute flaccid paralysis. This article lists people who had the paralytic form of polio. The extent of paralysis varies from part of a limb to quadriplegia and respiratory failure. The latter was often treated with an iron lung. Around 30–40 years after contracting paralytic poliomyelitis, about 25–40% of cases lead to post-polio syndrome. Symptoms include muscle pain, further weakening of muscles and paralysis.

Surviving paralytic polio can be a life-changing experience. Individuals may be permanently physically disabled to varying degrees. Others remember the fear and isolation. Some continue to campaign for polio eradication or disability rights...

More, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_polio_survivors



- Film director Francis Ford Coppola's childhood was interrupted for over a year by polio.

[czarjak]

1. Two years old in 1955. Me too.

[appalachiablue]

5. Glad you made it through. We had

the polio vaccine c. 1958-60. Because of the scares when she was a child, Mom was aware.

I knew a couple kids a bit older with an arm or leg affected, otherwise in good health. A very serious disease that impacted many worldwide until the vaccine, thank God.

[DURHAM D]

2. My aunt is a survivor.

She got it when she was 5 yrs old and is still alive today at 98. She did not experience post-polio syndrome. She is an amazing human being and can do amazing things even though she does not have use of her right arm or hand.

[appalachiablue]

6. What a survivor, good for her. Strong woman.

[jpak]

3. The images of those iron lung wards terrified my generation

Why oh why don't idiots get COVID vaccinations?

Ugh

[bahboo]

4. I know....between this and leukemia, I was terrified half the time....

[appalachiablue]

7. Ignorance, brainwashed, harming others..

[stuffmatters]

8. Mitch McConnell

[appalachiablue]

9. That's right

[Paladin]

10. I have old-timer friends experiencing late-life blowback from their childhood polio.

Ugly disease. I can still still remember the March Of Dimes campaigns, and I damn sure remember going to my elementary school, waiting in line, and swallowing a sugar cube with the vaccine on it. God bless Dr. Salk and others who worked against such a monstrous affliction---and who were lauded for their efforts, rather than being vilified.

[appalachiablue]

12. Until I read this material I didn't

realize symptoms could return decades later. What anxiety and a terrible disease. Yes, many thanks to Dr. Salk and others for their efforts on the vaccine, life saver.

[ChazInAz]

11. And me.

At the age of two in Hungary. It was a relatively mild case, affecting my legs. I recovered, for the most part, though standing for long periods and walking any real distance were problematic. In my twenties to forties I was in good enough shape to play the decidedly gymnastic Cyrano de Bergerac and other physically demanding roles. Such parts left me exhausted every night, but I carried on.
Now, it's starting to come back.

[appalachiablue]

13. Appreciate you sharing this, very sorry

to know it's returning. Managing the condition takes much courage. All the best to you.

[PlanetBev]

14. My mother got it in 1951 when I was a year old

She made a full recovery after 14 months in the Infantile Paralysis hospital in Santa Monica. I’m so grateful everyday that I didn’t get it.

[appalachiablue]

15. How wonderful that she recovered so well

and you weren't affected, what a scary era and just before the vaccine was available. Appreciate you sharing this.

My mom was very aware since her childhood in the 1930s, 40s when polio was active so she made sure to get us vaccinated in the later 1950s.

Last year when a friend and I were discussing the polio vaccine, she said she remembered as a child Dr. Salk coming to their house because he was working with her father, a pediatrician in Pittsburgh.