With all the talk, hype, (and yes hysteria) of Swine Flu, it was timely that yesterday I listened to an hour of radio with guest David M. Oshinsky who wrote
"Polio: An American Story". I was enamoured with the account of America's battle with a REAL epidemic...Polio. I was especially interested as my grandfather Harold Bock got polio and spent the majority of his life crippled by what it had done to his body. Here is what I learned of Polio from Oshinsky:
- Polio was/is a contagious intestinal disease entering through the mouth into the digestive system. Ultimately into the nervous system where nerve paralysis would occur
- Polio was largely a child's disease, striking fear into everyone...especially parents
- Most children contracted a mild case of polio and their bodies would make a lifetime of antibodies--but about 1 out of 100 cases the virus entered the central nervous system
- There was no prevention, and no cure
- At the height of the virus (the early 1950's) there were about 50,000 kids per year came down with polio...about half of which were seriously paralized and a small percentage killed
- Polio came like a plague every summer infecting children--no one knows exactly why polio thrived in summer. Parents therefore kept kids indoors, out of pools, and sometimes away from friends in what was usually the happiest time of year for kids
- Kids infected where kept out of movie theatres, crowds, pools...some cities even banned all children under the age of 16 from entering their town
Polio was largely a Western disease (Particularily American) because it thrived in antiseptic (clean) enviornments- Treatment included an Iron Lung in cases where paralysis made it into the lungs--Usually people would spend a few months or even a number of years in these coffin-like breathing machines. There are some cases where people have spent 30, 40, or even 50 years in them! A small number of people are still in these today after decades! Can you imagine? (See Picture)
My point in all of this is three-fold. First, it was really interesting to hear the Professor talk about the reason it thrived in the U.S.--we were so clean! Apparently this is true of other sicknesses as well. It has been shown that our obsessiveness with germs played a large role in the epidemic of polio. Oshinsky warned parents of the benefits of allowing our children to build lifetime immunities from being exposed to germs. Secondly, I am so thankful that largely because of the March of Dimes, we came up with a vaccine for this terrible virus. I'd wager most of us don't even think about it when we bring our kids in for shots. Lastly, while the Swine Flu may turn out to be a big deal (I seriously doubt it...like Mad Cow, Bird Flu, heterosexual AIDS, etc), let's be thankful we are not fighting a major epidemic like Polio. Let's keep it in perspective and not keep feeding the money-making, hysteria-inducing efforts of Mass Media!
