Jonas Salk

[digitS']

Was born 100 years ago, today.

What a different world we moved into once a polio vaccine became available.

Smithsonian (link)

Steve

 

[Smart Red]

Yes, I remember all the praise and attention he received for this medical advancement. I didn't know anyone personally who had polio, but my mother had a great fear of the ailment. I read about the disease and its effects from leg braces to iron lungs.

I also remember lining up in the gym with my parents. As we passed the table, a nurse gave each of us a sugar cube of vaccine. Not that of Salk and his vaccine made from dead polio virus injected into the arm, but of his contemporary, Albert Sabin. Sabin’s sweet-tasting and inexpensive oral vaccine was deemed a better choice for mass vaccinations.

 

[baymule]

My mother had polio. She was left with a shaky left arm and weakened stomach muscles that gave her a slightly poochy tummy. I can remember her taking me for that pink sugar cube. We stood in a long line, seemed like it took forever for our turn. I was very young, but I remember that.

 

[thistlebloom]

We got jabbed. Everybody had a round scar on their upper arm from that vaccination. The scars were still there as adults.

 

[digitS']

You may be thinking of the small pox vaccine, Thistle'.

I had an unusual experience with polio victims but, thankfully, it wasn't in my immediate family. We were living in southern Oregon and the news had a story about a local family being stricken. It was in a small town and the public swimming pool was near the family home. Bang! That pool was closed for the summer! You'll see in the Smithsonian article that swimming pools were not involved in the spread of polio but we didn't know.

Years later, I ended up in another state with a college roommate. His family was the one in that small town that had polio. He and his 2 younger siblings did not get sick. His older brother had those deformed shoulders polio survivors often had, some of us may remember. His mother could only walk with braces. His father died.

Recovering, his mother and her 4 children returned to her hometown in Idaho. One son went on to college and work as an architect. His older brother is still alive. We must be getting down to a very few of these people in the US.

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

I had the sugar cubes. I certainly remember those. With Mom and Dad there was no question. We got all the vaccines. Small pox too. I still have that scar.

Thanks to that vaccine polio was almost eliminated from the earth. I was looking for some information on it and found this that shows how effective those vaccines are. in 2013, 416 cases were reported for the entire year as opposed to over 350,000 in 1988

Maybe if people will keep taking the vaccines polio can be added to the list of horrible diseases eradicated from the earth.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

I have not thought of those sugar cubes in decades. Thanks for the memories!

 

[Smart Red]

I remember those small pox vaccinations as well. I seem to recall being told that if the injections didn't scab and scar properly, the shot was ineffective and you would need to be given it again. Yup! It still shows and I've never come down with small pox. . yet.

 

[thistlebloom]

You may be thinking of the small pox vaccine, Thistle'.
Steve

Oh. Is that what it was?
What do I know? i was just a kindergartener at the time.

I don't remember a pink sugar cube, but we've already established that I spent a lot of time wool gathering.

 

[digitS']

Wow!

My first small pox vaccination was under my arm. Whoever came up with this idea made a mistake! It was very painful in the healing process and left a serious scar. I'm the only person I know of who had a vaccine under the arm.

Initially, the vaccine Salk developed was the only one available. The earliest date Wikipedia gives for Sabin's oral vaccine is 1961. "The 1952 polio epidemic became the worst outbreak in the nation's history. Of nearly 58,000 cases reported that year 3,145 died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis."

There were 151,323,798 residents in the United States counted in the 1950 census. That would mean about 1 case out of 2600 in some of the years prior to the vaccination campaign.

Steve