Poliomyelitis is a dreadful disease that I remember children (and adults) having when I was a child. Several members of my family had it, and a friend of my husband’s died of it as a little boy. It was not uncommon to see children in calipers, and there were a couple of girls at my secondary school who used them. Jonas Salk discovered and pioneered the use of a successful vaccine and both my sister and I were vaccinated although some neighbours feared it would harm their children and did not allow them to receive the injection. Thanks to Salk, and the researchers who came after him, polio became a disease of history in this country at least, and no more will you see little children in iron lungs, or wearing the metallic braces on their legs.
The fear of polio was very real, and the idea of it still unsettles me, especially when I hear of people in some countries resisting programmes to immunize all children. Excellent news today, though, India has been declared polio free! How wonderful that the huge country and its many, many millions of people are now safe from this disease at least. Sadly other countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria remain on the WHO’s list of polio-endemic countries.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-25708715
Jonas Salk
Lois Elsden 