The History of Poliomyelitis Essay

Polio an American story is a scholarly readable and informative book which covers the lives of many American eminent scientists who struggled a lot to eradicate polio. This book mainly focuses on the mid twentieth century where the people are very eager to find a vaccine to eradicate polio .This book also covers the entire topics from appearance of polio symptoms to post polio syndrome which shows the valuable thesis done by David M. Oshinsky.

Paralytic poliomyelitis, "polio", held a reign of terror over this nation for decades. But unless you were born before 1955, polio may seem to be just another ephemeral disease that has been nonexistent for years. Those born before 1955 remember having a great fear of this horrible disease which crippled thousands of once active, healthy children. This disease had no cure and no identified causes, which made it all the more terrifying. People did everything that they had done in the past to prevent the spread of disease, such as quarantining areas, but these tactics never seemed to work. Polio could not be contained. Many people did not have the money to care for a family member with polio. This was one of the

In the book “The disability rights movement” I learned the history and process people with disabilities have been going through in order to obtain an equality of rights in the United States. The book was written by Doris Zames Fleisher and her sister Frieda Zames as a way of raising awareness of the reality of people with disabilities. Frieda Zames an activist in favor of the American disabilities act, wrote this book to tell the story of civil rights movement and to make people aware of the struggles that people with disabilities go through at the same time raising the word for equality. The book demonstrates how grievances regarding medical issues can be addressed in a democratic society by giving examples such as the life of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As a significant figure in this movement, Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president with disabilities, who contracted polio eleven years before he became president. He was a significant figure in the movement because he served as an example of the capabilities a person with a disabilities can have. He was also an advocate of

In addition to health-related advances, such as the artificial heart valve, DNA structure decay, penicillin, and antibiotics. As well, we can not forget the start of the fight with cancer by the memorable world’s first cancer treatment with Cobalt-60 radiation. Although, new surgical procedures were introduced like the first successful kidney transplant and immunizations like typhoid, smallpox, tetanus, and polio vaccines. Polio epidemics had been occurring in the United States since 1916 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The viral disease struck even important figures as President Franklin Roosevelt that forced him to use a wheelchair and wear steel braces on his legs privately. “In the 1940s and 1950s, widespread polio epidemics terrorized the nation. Finally, research scientist Jonas Salk developed an injectable vaccine to prevent polio. In 1955 the vaccine became available to the general public. American scientist Albert Sabin then developed an oral vaccine for polio. Safer and more convenient than Salk’s injection vaccine, the Sabin vaccine became the most common method for preventing the disease. The threat of polio nearly disappeared and many more diseases no longer affected the American people” (Appleby, Joyce 2004). Therefore, the treatments and cures of several epidemics and diseases were an important factor that caused the Baby Boom due to the decrease in the children’s mortality rates and their possibility to reach adult

Death, sickness, and epidemics were very prominent during the Progressive Era. America was going through a very rough time because of the increase in health risks. With all this happening America was recovering from World War One and the Financial Crises in the business community. During 1916 America experienced one of its first epidemics with a large case of polio, causing nearly 3000 deaths with over 9000 cases. This epidemic could have been caused due to the Public’s Health being poor during the Progressive Era, this was due to the lack of basic human sanitation, poor living conditions, and the rarity of children’s medical institutions (Healthcare).

Heather Green Wooten’s The Polio Years in Texas: Battling a Terrifying Unknown chronicles the history of polio in Texas in a very extensive timeline. The book goes all the way back to the beginning of the polio epidemic and essentially progresses to the present. The time in this book certainly exceeds that of, The Captured and Isaac’s Storm. The Captured chronicled a long period of captivity, but did not appear to exceed a decade. Isaac’s Storm traced the initial development of Weather Bureau and covered a great period, but did not exceed that of The Polio Years. Several themes begin to emerge further into the book. Obvious themes included, the support for March of Dimes, impact on families affected by polio, the growth and development of rehabilitation facilities, and more importantly the response to the disease by Texans. Oddly, Wooten discusses the fact that other diseases such as, measles, diphtheria, and tuberculosis took more lives than Polio. However, people feared Polio more than the rest. Wooten attributes polio’s terrifying affect to the uncertainty. Several uncertainties such as, how to prevent it, why did some become crippled, why did some die, and why did it only essentially affected children made polio very terrifying in the 20th century. Texas appeared to have been hit the hardest in comparison to other states. Wooten’s research examined the time during and then after World War II. During this period, Texas saw an immense amount of polio contractions. Per

Polymyelitis, otherwise known as polio, was one of the most feared diseases of the early to mid twentieth century. This disease either killed or it paralyzed its’ victims. This affected America in such a terrible way by killing or paralyzing thousands of them within the beginning of the twentieth century alone, scaring most other Americans and putting up a red flag for most health organizations. President Roosevelt, however, conceived the idea of initiating the charity that would later

Poliomyelitis was a highly infectious disease that spread through many Americans in the early 20th century. As a matter of fact, over 3,000 Americans died of the disease each year. Families were overwhelmingly desperate for doctors to find a cure. When one suffered from polio, they generally experienced painful symptoms which included not only fatigue and muscle weakness, but even death. Therefore, when the polio vaccine was introduced by scientist Jonas Salk in 1953, it greatly contributed to Americans in numerous positive ways. Environmentally, the vaccine saved countless young American lives affected by the disease thus decreasing American mortality rates. Socially, the polio vaccine convenienced families who were either directly afflicted

Poliomyelitis (polio) is a disease that attacks the nervous tissue in the spinal cord and the brain stem resulting in paralysis (Document One). Polio is caused by the poliovirus, but it is unknown how this virus is acquired. The virus enters the digestive tract and stays in the intestines for up to eight weeks, and then attacks the lymphatic system, the blood stream and eventually travels to the brain and spine (Document Four). Once it is infected in one’s body, the disease is highly contagious and can be spread through contact of saliva, food, germs, or feces (Document Two). “The poliovirus causes most of its infections in the summer and fall. At one time, summer epidemics of polio were common and greatly feared” (Document Four). This may

Polio, something that can devastate anyone and everyone so very quickly. In 1953, you didn’t know when you could be infected with this life threatening disease.

Not long after, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who created the national foundation for infantile paralysis (NFIP) had himself paralyzed by polio too. He take this as a wakeup call and then began starting and organizing the massive research to test the effectiveness of polio vaccines which created by Jonas Salk. However, in order to that, require a lot of money, complicated procedures and not to forget, the subject to test the vaccines (Rebecca Skloot).

David Oshinsky's 2005 Polio: An American Story, is a history of the fight to eradicate polio in the 20th century. Polio became one of the most, if not THE most, feared diseases of the century due to the influence and example of President Franklin Roosevelt, who was stricken with the disease as an adult in 1921. Owner of a Warm Springs, GA resort dedicated to polio rehabilitation(where he died in 1945), Roosevelt needed to raise funds to keep the resort operational. In 1934, he allowed planners to throw a nationwide series of birthday parties (over 6,000) for him to raise money for the care of polio survivors and for the upkeep of Warm Springs. The success of these parties and recognition that the key to raising money during the Great Depression

When hygienic conditions were poor polio attacked infants. The disease was spread by contaminated water and contact with fecal contamination. Many infants died when the conditions were poor. But as conditions improved the virus spread differently. It was spread more through playmates and family members, the contamination came from the

This disease has killed and paralyzed many. One of polio’s fatal symptoms is paralyzing muscles that help you breathe (“Polio Vaccine”).

The poliovirus is one of the most transmittable and most contagious viruses that the human population has come in contact with.  The structure of the poliovirus allows it to be able to bind to motor neuron cells within a host’s body and reproduce quickly. Like all virus’s, the poliovirus