Transcript Small Steps: The Year I got Polio

Small Steps:
The Year I got Polio
By: Peg Kehret
Polio: What it is
Poliomyelitis or Infantile Paralysis
• A viral, infectious disease that usually affects children
• Highly contagious, it spreads easily through human
contact
• Initial symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache,
vomiting, stiffness in the neck and pain in the limbs
• Polio attacks the central nervous system of the body.
It travels on nerve fibers and destroys nerve cells,
which control your muscles. This leads to paralysis:
sometimes it’s temporary, sometimes it’s permanent
Historical Background
• Epidemics of polio occurred all over the world;
but it wasn’t recognized as a distinct condition
until 1840
• It was one of the most dreaded childhood
diseases of the 20th century
• In 1950s, at the height of the polio epidemic,
over 60,000 cases were diagnosed, and 3,000
deaths were from polio in the U.S. alone
A family at Christmas during the 1940’s –the child on the
left suffers from polio
FDR
"the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was president of the
U.S. from 1933 to his death in 1945
• In 1921, at the age of 39, FDR became ill with polio.
The disease left him unable to walk without the use of
a cane or a wheelchair
• The public rarely ever saw FDR in a weakened state. He
was careful to present himself strong, standing, and
independent whenever he gave a speech or was in
public
• He became a champion for people with disabilities;
creating programs for the handicapped and starting
charities to help other polio victims
FDR
Vaccines
• The March of Dimes, an organization founded with the help
of FDR, funded much of the research done on polio
• They found that bad sanitation and hygiene spreads polio.
Children are at a higher risk because they have not
developed the antibodies to fight it off
• Dr. Jonas Salk researched polio and developed a vaccine in
1955. It was not completely successful though until 1963,
when Dr. Albert Sabin improved it
• Because of the success of the vaccination, polio has been
eradicated from most countries in the world. It may soon
be the 2nd disease to be completed eradicated by a
vaccination
Albert Sabin (left) and Jonas Salk (center) meeting with
Basil O’Connor of the March of Dimes in 1961
Also, vaccination given to children (on top a sugar
cube!)
Polio poster to
raise awareness
The Iron Lung
• By definition the iron lung is "an airtight metal
tank that encloses all of the body except the
head and forces the lungs to inhale and exhale
through regulated changes in air pressure.“
• Developed in 1927, an iron lung cost about
$1,500—the average price of a home.
• In 1959, there were 1,200 people using tank
respirators in the United States; in 2004, there
were 39.
Iron lungs-not real but used on a hollywood set
Missing tubes and wires to make them work
Peg Kehret