Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio

Cases of polio trace back as far as ancient times; Egyptian paintings from as early as the 1300s BC depict children with the condition. In 1798, a British doctor named Michael Underwood provided the first clinical description of polio, but it wasn’t until 1840 that physicians Jakob Heine and Karl Oskar Medin formally recognized it as a disease and called it the Heine-Medin disease. The name underwent many changes; for a time, it was called infantile paralysis because the disease affected children far more often than adults, and finally it became more commonly known as its scientific name of poliomyelitis, or polio for short.

The first formally recorded polio epidemics began in Scandinavia in the late 1800s and quickly spread to other parts of the world. In 1916, the United States reported 27,000 cases of polio and 6,000 related deaths. Research revealed that polio is caused by the spread of a virus, but professionals had not yet discovered how to prevent or treat the disease. For 40 years, polio epidemics were rampant, facilitated by the fact that although the flu-like symptoms of many polio cases were slight and did not cause death or paralysis, they would spread to others and manifest in far more serious forms. This rapid spread induced mass hysteria; parents sheltered their children from the surrounding community, and cities even banned children from entry in order to contain the disease and protect others from infection. Despite extensive efforts to quell the epidemics, polio cases continued to rise, resulting in physical disabilities or killing many people.

In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt founded “The March of Dimes,” a non-profit foundation for polio survivors that went on to successfully fund research, patient care, rehabilitation centers, and medical equipment. In 1940, Sister Elizabeth Kenny arrived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, determined to teach her Sister Kenny treatments within the United States to combat the physical symptoms of polio. The Sister Kenny rehabilitation methods included hot packs and physical therapy to stretch muscles. In just two years, the Sister Kenny Institute (1942) was established in Minneapolis. While the treatments were successful for the recovery of many, this success could not change the fact that polio epidemics were increasing. In 1952, nearly 60,000 cases were reported; in response, the March of Dimes continued to provide as much support as possible.

Researchers eventually discovered the way in which the poliovirus infects its victims; it spreads through contact with the feces of an infected person or through the droplets from sneezes or coughs. Early attempts to create enough antibodies for the virus to make enough vaccines failed until John F. Enders, Frederick C. Robbins, and Thomas H. Weller finally discovered the method, winning the 1954 Nobel Prize in Medicine as a result. Creating the vaccine also presented new difficulties, including whether to use an inactive virus or a weakened live virus.

In 1954, with funding from the March of Dimes, Dr. Jonas Salk used an inactive virus to develop a polio vaccine consisting of three injections. As the Salk Immunizations proved successful, the 1.8 million children who participated in his initial trials became known as Polio Pioneers. By 1955, the Salk vaccine was approved as safe and effective. By 1957, there was an 80% drop in polio cases in the United States. In 1961, Dr. Albert Sabin developed and administered a polio vaccine using a weakened live virus; it consisted of three oral doses, and the research that led to its invention was also funded by the March of Dimes. Once the Sabin vaccine was approved in 1962, it replaced the Salk vaccine as a cheaper and more convenient method. However, due to the weakened live virus in Sabin’s vaccine, many people with weaker immune systems contracted vaccine-associated polio. Therefore, in 2000, the United States discontinued the Sabin vaccine and solely used the inactive Salk vaccine, commonly called the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV).

In 1979, the last case of naturally occurring polio was recorded. Historically, 1944 marks the year that polio was officially eliminated in the Western hemisphere. Between 1988 and 2005, worldwide polio cases went from 350,000 to 1882. Although there is still no cure for polio and no medicines to repair damaged nerve cells, modern polio patients continue to undergo the heat packs and muscle-stretching treatments that Peg endured in the 1940s.