Why write about polio when the disease is a faint echo for most people? It's because I developed this disease years ago when a vaccine was not available. So I've never understood why some parents still question the use of vaccines and try to withhold them from their children. Yogi Berrra, you see, was right.
I had just started my final year at The Harvard Medical School. I was in good spirits. By this time I was confident I might even graduate! But one morning I awakened with a thunderous headache and I couldn't blame it partying. Later that day I was rushed to Boston's Children's Hospital and 12 hours later the virus had paralyzed my legs. You never forget being told by doctors that you may never walk again.
april 12, 1955 means nothing to readers, but on this day the discovery of Salk's polio vaccine was announced to the world. It ended an era of global fear and 50 years later polio has been eradicated from North america.
I vividly recall as a young child the summer fear that struck when mere whispers of a polio outbreak froze everyday life. Swimming pools were closed, movie theaters emptied and front doors shut. Unlike today's influenza that strikes the elderly, polio either killed or crippled the young.
The first polio outbreaks occurred in Europe in the 19th century and a few years later in North america. Between 1927 and 1962 there were 50,000 cases reported in Canada.
Later, in 1972, polio struck a Connecticut school. Then in 1977 a report in the Canadian Medical association journal showed that wild strains of the virus had been isolated from sewage dumped into the Ottawa river.
In 1993 an outbreak of polio occurred in the Netherlands with 68 cases among adults and children. at least two persons were known to have died. This outbreak was traced to groups that refused immunization on religious grounds.
as recent as 1988 reports from the World Health Organization showed that 350,000 children were paralyzed with polio worldwide. Today this disease is still present in africa and asia. Moreover, in a shrinking world, polio and other infectious diseases are a mere plane ride away.
Just by the roll of the dice some victims are fortunate enough to regain most of their muscles. What we didn't realize early on was that Yogi Berra, philosophy king of the New York Yankees, was right when he remarked during a baseball game that, "It's not over until it's over".
Now we know that 25 percent of those who suffered paralytic polio develop the "post-polio syndrome" 20 to 30 years later. It's such a slow insidious process that muscle changes are initially imperceptible until it starts to interfere with daily activities. Former patients may get up in the morning refreshed but feel exhausted by noon and have trouble breathing.
Why does this happen? Most people believe the polio virus attacks and destroys muscles. It doesn't. Muscles contract because cells in the spine send messages telling them to do so and it's these cells that are either totally or partially destroyed by the virus.
It's believed these partially destroyed cells have to work harder and they can do so for a limited period of time. But like plugging too many appliances into an electrical outlet they eventually blow a fuse and post-polio syndrome begins.
Ironically this is one situation where "use or lose it" doesn't apply. Rather, using these muscles too much accelerates their aging and the onset of weakness.
Today there's a tendency to believe that infectious disease is past history. after all, smallpox that once ravaged mankind, has been eradicated thanks to worldwide vaccination. But infection never takes a holiday and diseases can return with a vengeance.
I was one of the lucky ones who recovered most of the muscle loss. But weeks of therapy were required before I could walk up a few stairs.
50 years later I'll not forget the miracle of polio vaccine. Nor the more than 12 vaccines that help to prevent serious disease.
Let's never get sloppy about prevention or refuse these vaccines to children.
Dr. W. Gifford Jones can be reached at giffordjones@sympatico.ca
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