Fifty years ago today

[pegkerr]

The first polio vaccine was announced fifty years ago today. Thousands of Americans got polio, hundreds died, and thousands were condemned to lives of paralysis.

Last year there were only 1200 cases of polio world wide, and the hope is that it will eventually be totally eliminated.

THANK YOU, Jonas Salk.

Comments

[catlily.livejournal.com]

I hope I'm wrong, but I heard just the other day that due to lack of vaccination/funds, there is a growing danger of an upsurge in cases in the Third World - particularly Africa.

If this is true, it is criminal - it must be one of the easiest diseases to vaccinate against these days.

[catlily.livejournal.com]

Replying to my own post - here's the link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4433507.stm

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

That announcement forced me to wince a little -- I was part of the original test population....

Pardon me, my gray hairs are showing.

(Side-effect -- I had to get the whole series of shots twice, because we never knew if I had the actual vaccine or the placebo in the trial.)

This reminds me....

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of some personal & family history.

I can recall going with my parents & older sister to a local school, and that we all took what I believe was the "sugar cube" polio vaccination. It was only when I got involved in ACT-UP and The Names Project I thought about how scary the first few years of my life must have been for my parents, and what a god-send this vaccine must have been.

I'm also reminded of reading my paternal grandmother's diary (my Uncle John made copies and passed them out to various family members). She wrote about the "sleeping sickness" epidemic (and made a few vague comments about things going on in Europe). In one of her last entries she mentioned that "Johnny" was going out on a trip to North Dakota with "Charles"* (my grandfather, who was a traveling watch repairman), and how worried she was that one of the two of them might pick up the disease.

Shortly after that she was the one exposed, and died a few weeks later.

Her funeral was quarantined.

*My grandfather (the Canadian) was named "Charles Lawrence Cummer", my father was "Charles David Cummer", and she referred to him as "David", which confused me (David Charles Cummer a bit on the initial reading.

There's quite a bit of "naming sharing" in my family, which is part of the reason why my brother (Jeffery Keith Cummer) vowed that no child of his would be named for a living relative. His sons, by the way, are named Charles William (for my father & my sister-in-law's grandfather) & Jeffery Cole Cummer...