Ever known anyone who'd had polio?

[panache45]

I'm 64, and remember when the first polio vaccines came out, in the 50s. All in all, I've known 5 people who'd had polio . . . not counting people with no visible effect. How many people have you known, if any? And please give your age.

[Joey P]

Sort of. The person is probably in her 50's. She doesn't have polio...per se. She has a very very bad limp (I assume a her leg is deformed) from the polio vaccine.

[Dr. Drake]

Did we have to know them while they had polio? I'm 38, and I knew a great-uncle had polio as a youth, and lost the ability to walk. Nobody else that I know of.

[panache45]

No, they don't have to still have the active virus . . . but were suffering from the effects when you knew them.

[KRC]

My middle school biology teacher, but her case must not have been severe as she could walk normally. There was also a girl at my high school who caught it because her parents refused to get her immunized. She could not walk and was in one of the special classes.

For the record, I'm exactly at mid forties.

[Cerowyn]

My ex-wife's aunt (the youngest sibling of my father-in-law) contracted polio very shortly before the vaccine became available. She can walk short distances with crutches, but uses a wheelchair most of the time. She's still going strong.

[Chefguy]

I'm 63. There was a kid in grade school who contracted it. We all contributed dimes and nickels to help pay for his iron lung. My cousin's father died of polio at age 27, leaving a widow and a 2-year old.

[alice_in_wonderland]

Yes - I used to know a lady who shopped at a consignment store I worked at on weekends.

One of her feet was a size 5 and the other a 9 due to polio. She always had to buy 2 pairs of shoes ('cus no amount of insoles is gonna turn a 5 into a 9).

She shopped at the store because they also clear and would have cute shoes in odd sizes so she could get a pair for a reasonable price. Sadly, she was also a total shoe girl. I always thought she would have had an easier time with handbags.

[runner pat]

I'm 50. My mom had polio when she was 28 and spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair. Had 4 more kids after for a total of 8.

[gardentraveler]

I'm 52. One of my classmates in grade school had had polio. Can't remember what after-effects he had, except that they were mild.

One of my coworkers (she's probably 10 years older than me) had polio when she was younger. She wears braces on her lower legs most of the time because her legs have become weaker as she's aged.

[dangermom]

I'm 36 and have met a couple of older people who had it. One woman in her 60's said that she turned 8, got this great new bike and rode it all over, and the next day she was sick. She walks, but uses crutches or something.

[hajario]

My step-dad's good friend from childhood got polio when they were kids. He's in his mid-70's. He doesn't walk too well but he gets along.

[GusNSpot]

I went to high school with a girl who had polio, leg braces, hunch back and other problems. Took her to Prom. I carried her during the dances. She died at about 25. Gutsy girl and always laughing & smiling... Known a few others who had it easier. Knew two that died quick.

I'm going to be 67 in a few months....

World is round.
It ain't fair,
Just damn round....

[Gary T]

I'm in my late 50's. I remember standing in line for a shot of the Salk vaccine, then several years later getting the series of oral Sabin vaccines.

I only recall one specific individual who'd had polio, an art teacher at my junior high school. What I mostly remember is the spectre of polio. Fear of swimming in certain places lest one catch it. The default assumption for why someone limped, or was in a wheelchair. As a schoolkid, I witnessed society's regard for polio transform from dark fear to relieved apathy.

[don't ask]

My mother had it when she was a child, probably in the 30s. She had no long term ill effects and said it was like a bad dose of flu in her case as far as she could recall.

[Girl From Mars]

My uncle had it when he was around 8 (around 60 years ago). My dad was 4, and remembers how they had to have separate rooms at home and remain isolated, with my uncle in some sort of iron lung thing. He's obviously fine now (had 2 kids and was a keen cricketer as a teen) but dad does think it's had some impact on his health long term. This was in Melbourne Australia.

[Silvorange]

I'm 37. My mom got bulbospinal polio in 1950 when she was six years old. It didn't manage to kill her until she was 64.

I've met quite a few members of the post-polio support group my mom belonged to, and a couple of her friends from the children's hospital where she spent so much time.

I also had an English professor, an elderly Catholic sister, who had had it as a child.

[AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet]

. There was also a girl at my high school who caught it because her parents refused to get her immunized. She could not walk and was in one of the special classes.

For the record, I'm exactly at mid forties.OT, but that is AMAZING:eek: that when you were in school, a kid would be forced into special classes just b/c they couldn't walk!!!!. NOT b/c of cognitive issues....but purely PHYSICAL issues!

[The Second Stone]

I've known three people over the years who had it, all of them before I was born in 62. One is entirely without noticeable symptoms until you start looking, then she has a slight limp. The other two have severe leg problems.

[missred]

My mom's cousin had polio as a child. He is getting close to 80 now and has always had some general weakness in his legs, but only wore braces for a short time as a kid.

One of my teachers in grade school had it as a child. She walked with a limp. She would be in her mid-seventies now, if she's still living.

I never knew anyone close to my own age (mid forties) with it.

[Nava]

I'm 42, a '68 vintage.

I've known one. My seamstress's younger sister was a polio survivor: she was bedridden and blind since age 10. Nowadays she would probably have been in a wheelchair instead, but back in the 50s when she got sick no-one thought of such a possibility, nor of getting her any kind of exercise; at one point she and their mother (who had Alzheimer's) moved into the same assisted care facility and one thing she loved about being there is that she would get rolled out into the garden. Every summer the family would go back to the village, which involved some very complicated logistics to get Ana into and off the trains; other than that, she'd spend her whole year in two beds (one in my hometown, one in the village). These women were of an age where vaccines were already available, but hadn't reached their village in a poor area of Spain, so they hadn't been vaccinated: a small epidemic killed several people, mostly children. Vaccines were shipped to the area and people who hadn't gotten sick yet were given it, according to Isabel (the seamstress).

[Koxinga]

I've seen quite a few middle-aged people in Asia who seem to have useless legs. Not just thin from being wheelchair bound, but sort of thin and twisted, maybe even shrunken. I always wondered if that was because of polio.

[Cisco]

I'm 28. My 8th grade science teacher had it as a kid. You'd never know it, except she couldn't lift her hands above her shoulders. Since she was only about 5'1" anyway, she wrote everything really low on the board.

[shantih]

I'm 44. My Dad had polio as a child, and has no lasting effects.

[TheChileanBlob]

I'm 43. I knew a little boy in the early '70s who had had polio. He walked with crutches (actually hauled ass is more like it) with his one useless leg pinned up behind him in a kind of harness.
Also, my high school French teacher had polio and had one leg that was very skinny. She always wore a skirt so it was obvious. After my school closed, she applied for a job at my dad's company but he didn't hire her because of the leg thing. "Appearances matter!" I thought that was kind of dickish of him.

[Ferret Herder]

39, I had a patient (early 50s maybe?) who had polio. He was originally from Pakistan and had contracted it there. His walking was slowed and and his gait was a little 'off' as a result.

[seosamh]

I'm 51. There was a boy in the year above me in secondary school in London who had had polio and wore a leg-iron. He was Afro-Caribbean but was probably born in the UK. He was also memorable for having the surname Powell, which meant that he was always known as "Enoch".

[Dangerosa]

43. Nope - or rather not that I'm aware of. I'm sure that there were people older than I am who had it, but have never said anything - and I usually don't inquire into someone's limp. I remember getting vaccines in school, I think for polio, yet, in the early 1970s.

On a related note, we were showing our kids our smallpox vaccine scars. They thought the whole thing very strange, particularly how we both have them (and EVERYONE of a certain age has them) and they don't.

[flodnak]

40. I had a classmate in grade school who wore a leg brace because of polio. She seemed to do okay with it, though - I don't remember her having a particularly bad limp, and she took gym class and played at recess the same as the rest of us.

[Hi Medlo]

I'm almost 60. One of my best friends from high school had polio and the only obvious lasting effect was a rather odd swaybacked posture. He was a pretty good sandlot athlete despite that and seems to be in good health to this day.
I also had another friend, about ten years older who had the disease with no obvious lasting results until he came down with post-polio syndrome. It was quite debilitating from time to time. He has since passed away from unrelated causes.

[Athena]

I'm 40. My mother had it when she was 8. She's 73 now.

It left her with a stunted leg. You'd never know it from the way she walks, but if you happen to look at her calves, one never developed much, the calf muscle is much skinnier than normal.

Her feet are about a half size different as well. Not really enough to cause problems buying shoes.

It only bothers her when she's on her feet for a long time. Overall, she's in great shape - she walks fast for 45 minutes 3-5 times a week, and has always been active. So it hasn't caused her much problem, other than when it originally happened. I can't imagine the fear her parents must have had.

[Tethered Kite]

I remember geting the vaccines. Sixty-two here. A brother and sister a year younger than I both had polio before they were old enough to go to school in our small, rural town. They've walked with a limp all their lives.

We have an adult friend of our age who has a weakened leg and has suffered recently with that setback syndrome that comes later in life. Can't think of what it's called.

I shudder to think of how frightening all those Sister Kenney newsreels were. The children with all those cumbersome braces and crutches struggling to walk and the terrifying iron lungs. I remember seeing whole wards of young people flat on their backs in these iron coffins seeing the world through those mirrors attached to the machines.

We also took The March of Dimes very seriously and made posters to support the cause.

Remember the mental connection with the Sabin vaccine with its little pink drop on a sugar cube and the not-so-much later LSD on sugar cubes?

[Harmonious Discord]

I have a relative that is alive that had it. I knew somebody that has a relative that had Polio. So I met two people that are alive that had Polio. I'm almost 50. There are dead relatives that had Polio. My mother knew them.

[jsgoddess]

I'm 39. My high-school advanced math teacher had polio. He walked with a severe limp and had some speech issues. Great teacher.

[StuffLikeThatThere]

My first cousin had polio when he was eight or nine. He's been in a wheelchair ever since (he's 60-ish), and is currently degenerating slowly because of Post Polio Syndrome.

[Kiros]

My girlfriend's father had it as a child, and can't walk without crutches or other assistance because of it. Other than that, he's fine; he's a very successful physician in Taiwan. I'm 25.

[Mama Zappa]

I'm 50 (born 1959) and I remember at least one vaccine dose being administered to me as a kid. I'm sure I'd had a dose even before then, just don't remember it.

About 20 years back, I worked with a woman who was perhaps 10 years older than I was - and got polio just a year or two before the vaccine became available in the mid-1950s. She walked with a substantial limp but was otherwise pretty functional. No clue how she's doing these days; I've heard of "post polio" syndrome that strikes victims decades after they were initially ill. It hadn't hit her yet at that point.

[VunderBob]

I'm 49. When I was in grade school, the neighbor lady across the street was a polio survivor, and it left her with respiratory paralysis. During the day she was in a rocking bed, and spent her nights in an iron lung.

[SciFiSam]

One aunt had it, but I never really saw her and am not sure what effects she had from it. I met a lot of older people who'd had polio as children and had various long-term conditions because of it; I volunteered for a while on a geriatric ward, so knew the medical statuses of more elderly people than the average person my age would.

More unusually, a girl at school a year older than me had polio and was confined to a wheelchair. She'd be 35 now. Her parents had refused all vaccinations.

[CalMeacham]

My sister-in-law had it. She got it before the vaccines were released, and fortunately came through relatively unscathed.


I'm 54, and had both the Sabin and Salk vaccines.

[Maastricht]

My grandfather. Born in 1894, he got it in his late twenties. Nearly killed him, but he survived with nothing more then a limp, for which he had to use a walking cane. He died aged 80, in 1974.

[Teacake]

The guy who taught me history A level had it as a kid, but I don't know at what age or where he contracted it. I guess he'd be around fifty, maybe fifty-five, by now.

[Jimson Jim]

My brother had it has a child. It left him with a smaller right leg than left. He walks with a considerable limp.

He was born in Viet Nam and adopted at age 5. He's 41 now.

[Drain Bead]

My pediatrician when I was a kid had polio. He walked with a cane.

[Rafe Hollister]

My father-in-law just turned 67. He had it as a kid, but had no real long-term effect. He has a bad back, but what 6'2" 270 lb old guy doesn't? He had a 40 year career as a state trooper and police chief and still works full time as a private investigator.

[pendgwen]

When I was a kid there was an older lady at church who walked with a crutch because of polio. This was in the 80s and I'd guess she was in her 50s then.

[Eva Luna]

I'm 41. One of my mom's cousins (she must be in her late 60s now) had polio as a child. One of her legs is atrophied, and she walks with a limp. Nobody else that I know of.

[Shodan]

I worked with a guy who had it as a child. He used a chair, and is now deceased due to related health issues. Hell of a bridge player.

I'm 54. He was 61 when he died, about twenty years ago.

Regards,
Shodan

[jjimm]

43. My grandmother had it as a kid. She had tiny feet and her legs were slightly bowed but otherwise she was in good health - she played tennis every day up until the week she died aged 82. Not bad for someone who had smoked 40 cigarettes a day from the age of eleven. She was from the Caribbean and also contracted malaria around the same age, which recurred every few years for the rest of her life.

[Guinastasia]

I'm 32. I went to college with a guy who had had it -- he was an exchange student from Rwanda, and it left his leg so twisted up he had to walk with a pole. He was the same age I am. It really makes you think about what you take for granted, you know?

Also one of my professors, had gotten polio as an adult -- the very year the Salk vaccine came out, actually. Apparently, they were only giving it to children at first.
She used a walker.


Another interesting factoid: the school nurse at my high school had worked with Dr. Salk back when he developed and distibuted the vaccine.

[caveman]

I'm 32; my middle school's Vice Principal walked with a serious limp (one leg was shorter than the other). I seem to recall that, although he was short, pudgy and bald, he (re?)married the hot mother of two of the hottest girls in school. Go Mr. M!

[Hari Seldon]

I'm 73 and I've known quite a few people who had it. There was a friend of my uncle's who became a doctor. He walked with pronounced limp, but no brace or cane. The mother of a good friend, who walked with a small limp. She had been advised not to have children but had two, both delivered vaginally (the doctors were afraid she wouldn't be able to push). A HS classmate of mine caught it in 1962 eight years after I actually knew him, well after the vaccines were available. He had been a jazz percussionist and could not continue, so he became a classical conductor and is now the director of the Oregon Symphony. He guest conducted here in Montreal and went painfully up on the podium, using crutches and braces, and conducted from a seated position. Some I knew in college (but he was in med school) got it around 1955. He finished med school in a wheelchair and went into nuclear medicine. The mother of a student in my children's elementary school caught it age 12 and has spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

And to answer another post, in my day, handicapped children went to separate schools. There was no integration.

[kunilou]

I'm 58 and I can remember several people who had it, most notably the sister of a friend of mine.

My sisters are in their 60's and can name even more.

[kushiel]

I'm 23 and don't know anyone who has had polio. I was also born long after they stopped giving the vaccine. However, I have a friend that's my age but from Nicaragua where they still gave the vaccines - the scar on her arm gives me the heebie-jeebies. That's one hell of a needle. But knowing about polio, I'd rather get jabbed with the vaccine a bajillion times.

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

I had a relative who had it as a child in the 19-teens. It left him with a limp. He died in the 1970s.

[StusBlues]

My grandfather had polio as a child. He walked with a brace on one leg. I've seen home movies of him walking three blocks to church with my grandmother's help. As he got older, this became out of the question--I never saw him walk more than 40 yards or so, leaning against a building the entire time.

Man, I haven't thought about this in years. He didn't get a cane until his 60s (and he died within a year or so after). He'd park his ancient truck RIGHT NEXT to our family store, step out, steady himself against the building, and make his way inside, one hand on the exterior wall the whole time. Once in the door, he'd steady himself against the counters and other fixtures, switching hands the whole time.

My God, Panache, thank you for bringing that image back for me.

ETA: I'm 40.

[Spavined Gelding]

I’m 68. In the little Ohio town where I grew up there were regularly two or three cases every year. Some mild, some fatal. Summer seemed to be the bad time. Some parents were nearly hysterical with anxiety. The release of the Salk and Sabin vaccines worked a transformation of life for all of us. There were few things sadder than seeing a vigorous and active youth turned over night into an invalid. It was pretty awful.

[Silvorange]

I'm 23 and don't know anyone who has had polio. I was also born long after they stopped giving the vaccine. However, I have a friend that's my age but from Nicaragua where they still gave the vaccines - the scar on her arm gives me the heebie-jeebies. That's one hell of a needle. But knowing about polio, I'd rather get jabbed with the vaccine a bajillion times.

Where have they stopped giving polio vaccines? Are you perhaps thinking of the smallpox vaccine?

[AuntiePam]

I'm 65, and a friend's sister who's two years older had it. She'd be 67 now. She wore leg braces and walked with one crutch, one of those metal ones that fit on your arm -- not the kind that goes under the shoulder. She just got married for the first time a few years ago. :)

She had trouble with the stairs at school -- there was no handicapped access in those days -- but other than that, she was just like any other student, except that everyone knew who her name.

[Rasa]

I'm 34, and my great-uncle Alfred got it as a child and walked with a limp and wore braces on both legs. I was very young when he died, and he was likely in his mid-70's. My grandfather's family were Canadian immigrants to the US, so I presume Alfred contracted it before they came here.

[DesertDog]

I'm 60 and knew three. The wife-half of a couple my parents knew was wheelchair bound but had managed three kids. A girl in my elementary school class wore braces and could get around on crutches. A guy in my high school class from another elementary school had one withered leg in a brace. When we were playing softball he could galumph the bases faster than I could run them (Admittedly a low bar to pass).

There might have been a couple more in the classes ahead of me (Freshmen don't look at upperclassmen) but there were none in the classes behind.

[devilsknew]

My Great Uncle had it and was left handiapped with braces and sometimes crutches. My Mother and another kid in her housing project got it and they quarantined the project back in the forties. She was in an iron lung for 3 months with six months of rehab after, because it apparently attacked her respiratory system, but she didn't suffer the typical permanent crippling paraylsis or effect to the legs.

[devilsknew]

My Great Uncle had it and was left handiapped with braces and sometimes crutches. My Mother and another kid in her housing project got it and they quarantined the project back in the forties. She was in an iron lung for 3 months with six months of rehab after, because it apparently attacked her respiratory system, but she didn't suffer the typical permanent crippling paraylsis or effect to the legs.

The newspaper article that details the victims and quarantine apparently attributed it to the nearby local, public, swimming pool.

[MsWhatsit]

My great-aunt, age 80ish, had it when she was a child. She swears that to this day she has ongoing muscular problems that are related to having had polio.

I'm 33, if that matters.

[Paul in Qatar]

I am 52, born in '58 and people with polio have always been around me. I dated a girl who had a withered leg. My scoutmaster was a fireplug of a man who walked with two canes on spindly leg. Hell of a guy.

[AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet]

And to answer another post, in my day, handicapped children went to separate schools. There was no integration.
Oh yeah I know. It just boggles the MIND that a kid who was just physically disabled (wheelchair or crutches/braces user) would be sent to a seperate school/class.
Deaf/hard of hearing, blind/low vision, and cognitively disabled kids yes of course. Even kids who went dhh or blind often went off to the state special schools or classes. My state actually still has a school specificly for kids with mobilty issues.(Mass. Hospital School) But now I think it's mostly kids with severe or multiple issues who go there. (basicly a state run nursing home)
But just wheelchair/mobilty kids? Then again, when I had surgery on my leg as a ten year old ('89) and was in a wheelchair for a month,, and we asked for accomondations, you would have thought that we had asked for open book tests!

[Nava]

AboutAsWeird, my school didn't have any "special classes", but the 12th grade classrooms were on top of the Aula Magna, in a building with no lift. One of my coursemates was wheelchair bound and one of the possible arrangements that was considered was moving one of the 12th grade sections to the lower floor in the main building. The rooms in that floor were all cavernous; I'm talking something like 30' ceilings, and except for the few offices they're mostly set up as labs, so it would have been a bitch to rearrange, it would have required major work. I understand someone dared propose having him as a class of one, taking lessons in one of the offices, and if looks could kill he would have died right there ("he's wheelchair bound, not some sort of criminal, to have to take class alone!", was the headmaster's reported retort). In the end, the 12th grade classes stayed where they were, and he'd get carried by four classmates up and down the stairs. I remember the guys took it as a matter of pride to be the ones carrying him.

Maybe having the physically disabled kid in the "special class" meant no stairs, no gym... a classroom which already had more space between the desks than usual, a teacher who was all right with helping a grown student go to the bathroom... I strongly doubt the bathrooms would have been adapted.

[InterestedObserver]

I MAY have, probably have, known someone who had polio, my late grandmother (who did, ftr, know people who died in the great flu pandemic when she was a teenager) and all of her 5 kids included, but I don't personally know of anyone who experienced complications from polio.

I am 44.

I did a great deal of research on this years ago, as part of a larger research project on incidence, complications and mortality rates from all of the (then) VPDs (vaccine preventable diseases), but unfortunately, all my stuff is on floppy disc and, at the moment, inaccessible. Too bad, 'cause I really had all the numbers and cites and everything all trussed up SO nicely. Still DO, just can't get to it on my new and improved computer :smack:

To sum up, off the top of my head:

Polio is actually a very interesting exception to the typical VPD in that complications and mortality associated with it coincided with IMPROVEMENTS in public sanitation, living conditions, hygiene and access to medical care. For virtually all other infectious diseases/VPDs, the opposite is true. (for measles, for instance, mortality had declined by 85% to 90% in the US and UK well before the vaccine was introduced, largely due to improvements in sanitation, nutrition and access to medical care for complications).

There were no reported epidemics of polio prior to the 18th century or so, and even then, they tended to occur in more developed areas.

Understanding why this was the case is key and complex.

Polio used to be an almost universal childhood infection. Meaning virtually every infant or young child was exposed, infected and gained lifelong immunity via contact with fecally contaminated water.

With rare exceptions, they recovered without any lasting harm. For most, there were no symptoms at all. For some, it took the form of a mild, flu-like illness followed by full recovery. For a very few (less than 1-2% at most, from my research), there was some form of residual effect (paralysis, weakness). In a very, very few cases, death resulted.

These complication/mortality rates still hold true, ftr...believe it or not, polio actually has a LOWER overall incidence of complications and mortality than the flu or even the common cold. Not to dismiss such complications out of hand, but based on the stats, they are rarer than those from other illnesses we take for granted.

One key factor is age at first exposure; the older one is at first exposure to the polio virus, the more likely one is to experience a more severe course (which also sets it apart form several other infectious, VPD diseases, in which middle childhood is the ideal time to contract).

In the past, it was most commonly contracted in infancy or early childhood, as most water supplies were contaminated to some degree with fecal matter and the very act of bathing or nursing or drinking water served to infect. The polio virus was pretty much ubiquitous.

But once the water supplies were cleaned up and exposure became far less likely, an increasing number of infants and toddlers were never exposed/infected/"immunized" to the virus, leaving them vulnerable to infection at older ages, when polio is more likely to assume a symptomatic or even severe form.

In the relatively sterile environment of the US circa the early decades of the 1900's, a large percentage of the population had never had the chance to be exposed at a young age and gain immunity. They were sitting ducks.

There is also much evidence that polio, like many infectious diseases, is cyclical in nature, waxing and waning in any given population for as yet not fully understood reasons.

And as a primarily orally transmitted infection, the common practice of removing the tonsils (now recognized as a component of the immune system and esp. important in protecting against orally transmitted infections, but at one time considered a rudimentary, useless organ and yanked out en masse) may have influenced rates of infection/complications in the US as well.

As could have the emerging practice of formula feeding. Breastmilk is known to kill the polio virus in the gut and provide antibodies when from an immune mom; the UN noted this in its deliberations over how best to approach the polio issue...BFing mothers would kill the live virus vaccine in the gut of their infants, BUT BFing served so many other important health benefits, they could hardly discourage it.

Another interesting note is that the symptoms of polio (when clinically apparent) mirror those of pesticide poisoning (pesticides were first widely used in the US during the period of the US polio epidemics).

They are also clinically identical to viral meningitis. I examined a study which concluded that it was highly likely that many "polio" cases reported at the time were actually due to meningitis or some other cause. A look at the rates of each condition in several US counties shows a steep increase in "polio" and an almost exact decrease in "meningitis" in the years following widespread awareness of the polio epidemic. Some medical historians have interpreted this as an over-reporting of symptomatic polio due to diagnostic bias.

Regardless, the polio epidemic seen in the US at that time can be seen as a perfect storm of circumstances all coming together to result in an apparent epidemic in which a far higher percentage of those infected manifested clinical symptoms and experienced complications.

There have been problems with the vaccine, as praised as it is (and I want to go on record as stating that I believe Salk had the best of intentions and was a great man, donating his work to the public because, as he put it, "can you patent the sun?").

The original version was found, in 1960, to have been contaminated with SV40, a previously unknown simian retro- virus now known to cause cancer in rodents and monkeys and which has been isolated from fatal tumors removed from humans. The source of the contamination was the monkey kidneys used to culture the vaccine. It took a few years for the contaminated vaccine to be used up/removed from circulation, so anyone who got a dose prior to 1962 or so is possibly infected with this retro-virus which is transmitted sexually and via blood transfusion, birth and organ transplants.

The switch to the injected, "killed" version of the vaccine was made in response to a number of cases of contacts with the live, oral vaccine recipient becoming infected and suffering lasting complications (one case I recall was a father, vaccinated against it as a child, who contracted it by changing the diapers of his recently vaccinated infant. It took years for him to get a definitive diagnosis because no Dr. could accept that he had polio. He did, and it was the vaccine strain).

The change-over was delayed many years, despite the fact that the ONLY reported cases of polio in the US and some other developed areas were due to the vaccine, because it was known that the live vaccine "sheds" for some time (7 yrs was the median estimate, longer in the immune depressed) and this was seen as a benefit (since in populations where there IS fecal contamination, it served to immunize infants and young children who might otherwise not be vaccinated).

How ironic...they had all but eradicated the wild polio virus and now felt compelled to re-introduce it into the environment to PREVENT serious illness. :smack:

For whatever it’s worth. Lots of anecdotal reports here, and I don’t discount them. Any injury or death is worthy of acknowledgment and honor. But this is, imo, a classic case of confirmation bias…we only know or notice those who experienced visible sequela and have no idea how many others also “had polio” and exhibited no ill effects. Ourselves included. Just offering up some of what I gleaned from my research into this fascinating virus and its interactions with its human hosts. Such interactions are very complex and
they interest me. There it is. :)

[Mama Zappa]

Where have they stopped giving polio vaccines? Are you perhaps thinking of the smallpox vaccine?
That must be it. Everyone I knew when I was growing up had the smallpox vaccine scar; that (I think) causes local blistering at the site of the injection. Polio is usually given orally, with an attenuated live virus. Though in the last few years, I think they've tended toward the injectable killed virus for the first one or two doses followed by the oral live virus for the rest of the series.

[salinqmind]

I'm 50-something. I remember as a very young child being taken to the town hall and being given the polio vaccine on a sugar cube... My aunt Priscilla had polio when young, which left her with a very severe limp. She walked without a cane or braces, but dragged her leg. (This did not stop her from getting an art degree and the week after, age 20, driving in her pink convertible to Washington DC to a job involving maps for the government (this was during WWII). She married, had two daughters, an upper middle class life, was VERY artistic and artsy-craftsy, believed in UFOs and reincarnation. Everyone loved her and she died after a full and interesting life.)...I'm not sure if she suffered from complications from the polio later in life. I'm aware of a friend of my mother's who did.

[WhyNot]

I'm 35. One of my family members whose connection to me I didn't really understand (she was called my "Aunt", but wasn't, I think she was maybe my mother's second cousin or something; she was at least 20 years older than Mom) had it as a child, and had forearm crutches to walk as an adult.

I remember she also had deformed hands with swollen joints and crooked fingers, the sort I'd associate now with rheumatoid arthritis. I don't know if it was RA or if that was another effect of the polio.

[Avarie537]

I am 30 and know three people who had polio. One is my stepdad. One is my husband's martial arts instructor. And the third is an old friend of my dad's. They're all right around age 60.

[WhyNot]

Oh, wow, I missed this whole second page before! InterestedObserver, your recollection of your research is correct as far as my own research goes. But, as they say, you can't unring a bell. As we don't want to "enrich" our drinking water with fecal matter because of all the other diseases that would create, the inactivated oral vaccine is the best, safest replication of the natural process that we have.

IOW, I've heard this whole line of reasoning from antivaxers claiming it supports their anti-vaccine stance ("it wasn't that bad for most people!" "Nature used to take care of it until the government stepped in!" etc. etc.), and I actually see it as supporting vaccination. Give it to 'em orally, give it to 'em young, and it's almost like nature in action, without the risks of hepatitis and dysentery.

[Chicagojeff]

My father in law has polio. Currently he is confined to a wheelchair. For most of his adult life he made it though use of crutches or a cane. I seriously consider him second only to my father in men I've had the pleasure of meeting. Growing up in a small Alabama town during the segregated 50's he became the under-secretary in the Dept of Agriculture, and is one of the toughest and smartest men I've ever met.

[Siam Sam]

In my 50s, and I've known one. My Dad's boss had it as a child. He had a lifelong limp but was not what you would call incapacitated.

[Mighty_Girl]

I am 40 and know somebody who's about 10 years older than me who was a polio victim. He's a complete wreck, hunch back, one shorter leg, some extreme deformities and is a terminal alcoholic and not well in the head. I am not sure if polio can affect the mind, but I can believe that his constant pain and his deformities may have pushed him inside a bottle. Sad case.

[Taomist]

I'm 43. A co-worker has it, or had it. She is 45. While I am assuming she is "over it", so to speak, she clearly wears support shoes, stoops quite a bit, has a limp. She's awesome attitude-wise, though, and is 100 percent capable in every way, unless you need her to run a footrace. :) And she's the first person I've ever met who <I know> has had polio.

[Taomist]

p.s. Wow, InterestedObserver, thank you for your input! That was really VERY interesting, and I, for one, appreciate it. :)

[MLS]

A boy I dated briefly in high school had a slight spinal twisting because of polio.

On a more positive note, only slightly off-topic: When I was teaching 9th grade a few decades ago, there was an inspirational story in the textbook about someone who contracted the disease, worked to succeed despite it and lived a noteworthy life. The text of the book referred to "infantile paralysis" which was footnoted as "polio." My students still didn't understand what that was. Someone finally remembered his baby brother getting a vaccine. What a great thing! A disease that gave our parents nightmares of fear, and now a whole roomful of kids who didn't even know what it was!

We then had a wonderful discussion about all the things people didn't have to worry about nearly as much as in past generations. I pointed out that prior to the development of anesthesia and clean surgery, if you had appendicitis, you very likely just died after days of horrible pain. It got very still in the classroom and everybody turned to look at the girl who had just recently returned to school after an appendectomy.

[groo]

I had a friend in college who had had polio. He was from Cuba and would have been born in 1960 or 1961. His arms had very little muscle mass, but his legs seemed to have developed normally. When he needed to use one of his hands, he'd basically whip his torso around to swing the arm in question over to where he wanted it to end up. Since he'd been doing it forever, it was actually a fairly graceful move.

[jjimm]

Thanks InterestedObserver for a fascinating and enlightening post. That's the kind of thing that explains why I read this board so often.

[panache45]

Many people are unaware of the reason FDR's portrait is on the dime (10-cent piece). Roosevelt, a polio survivor himself, founded the March of Dimes in 1938, in an effort to fund research and care for the disease's sufferers. Every American was asked to donate 10 cents (or more) toward this effort. In the aftermath of Roosevelt's death, the dime was redesigned, featuring his portrait.

[C3]

My grandmother, who is deceased but would be in her late 80s now, had polio as a young adult. She wore a leg brace for the rest of her life. She also had severe asthma, which I think was brought on by the polio, which caused her to have an enlarged heart. She died of an accident that came about while she was having a stroke.

[rbroome]

I'm 64, and remember when the first polio vaccines came out, in the 50s. All in all, I've known 5 people who'd had polio . . . not counting people with no visible effect. How many people have you known, if any? And please give your age.

I'm 57 but that isn't relevant to my knowledge. The last polio case I personally knew (I last talked to him (he moved) in 2007) was a man who developed adult polio from the live polio vaccine. He was exposed to the live vaccine in the 50's and developed polio from that in the early 1990s. I don't know how they determined his disease came from the vaccine but that is what his doctors told him. The striking thing about his case is the length of time between exposure to symtoms. He said that for those people who do contract the disease in this manner it is not unusual to have decades between exposure and symtoms. His breathing ability wasn't damaged, but he could barely walk. Before the symtoms started he was a long-distance runner. :(
very nice man. member of Rotary. When we were painting a house for an elderly couple as a service project he was out there in his motorized wheelchair with a brush helping out.

[rbroome]

I'm 57 but that isn't relevant to my knowledge. The last polio case I personally knew (I last talked to him (he moved) in 2007) was a man who developed adult polio from the live polio vaccine. He was exposed to the live vaccine in the 50's and developed polio from that in the early 1990s. I don't know how they determined his disease came from the vaccine but that is what his doctors told him. The striking thing about his case is the length of time between exposure to symtoms. He said that for those people who do contract the disease in this manner it is not unusual to have decades between exposure and symtoms. His breathing ability wasn't damaged, but he could barely walk. Before the symtoms started he was a long-distance runner. :(
very nice man. member of Rotary. When we were painting a house for an elderly couple as a service project he was out there in his motorized wheelchair with a brush helping out.

I remember him saying he was exposed in the 50's but that may not be true. Certainly he was exposed as a young man and it took decades for symtoms to appear.

[kushiel]

Where have they stopped giving polio vaccines? Are you perhaps thinking of the smallpox vaccine?

Well damn. Ignorance fought! Thanks :)

[janis_and_c0]

My Grandpa had polio as a kid/young man. My Mom was telling me last night that he nearly died from it, and in fact, they laid him out for dead, until someone noticed that he was still breathing!! He eventually recovered, but walked with a limp, because one leg was shorter than the other. I am 31.

[tomdenny]

I a number of ladies that had polio. One was an attractive redhead with a very lame left leg.She did not use a stick or legbrace but her leg bent inwards at the knee as she limped along.She walked with surprising speed,her hips swaying from side to side as her weight came on her lame leg. Another lady had a very thin right leg and walked with a moderate limp.Surprizingly,she wore short skirts and sheer tights as if she wished to show her deformed leg to all! A third lady had a short right leg and wore a shoe which was built-up 6 inches.She walked with a severe limp due to the effort of lifting such a large shoe.Has anyone else known a lady with a built-up shoe?

[panache45]

She walked with a severe limp due to the effort of lifting such a large shoe.
I think you're confusing cause and effect.

(And yes, even zombies get polio.)

[Mr. Accident]

My middle school band teacher had polio as a kid. It left her crippled. I never asked her about it though, since she was mean as a snake and would run your foot over if you didn't get out of her way fast enough. Since she had to weigh over 300lbs, that hurt like hell.

[kiz]

I'm 51. My oldest maternal uncle -- born in 1918 -- had it as a child. It left him able to walk, but with rather severe tremors in both hands. He had a lot of trouble with anything needing fine motor skills. He could sign his name, but if he had to write something longer, he had to prop his writing arm to keep it from flailing.

My mother's family always called it "infantile paralysis", not polio.

[VunderBob]

I'm 50. When I was a single digit kid, the neighbor lady across the street was a polio survivor. She spent her days in a rocking bed by a picture window, and slept at night in an iron lung. She's the only one I know that had polio; given the prevalence of the virus before vaccination and the roughly 1 in 10 chance of developing a complication, I'm sure I really know a larger number than one.

[Hypno-Toad]

My dad, born in '39, had polio bad when he was 7 or 8. Spent a couple of days in an iron lung at Duke Hospital. It particularly affected his left side and he had to wear a brace for years. This is a double hit since he's left handed. It also rendered him 4-F for the draft which removed any chance of going to Korea when he was a young man. I never realized just how bad it affected him until I was college age and he pointed out that I had never seen him raise his left arm higher than shoulder height.

[Pai325]

61. I've only known two; the boy who lived behind me growing up, and a man from my church.

[TriPolar]

As a child in the 60s I knew several people who had had it, and watched as one developed it and underwent therapy. I know someone who has it now. She was born outside the US, never vaccinated, and probably exposed to someone with the live virus vaccine.

[tomdenny]

40. I had a classmate in grade school who wore a leg brace because of polio. She seemed to do okay with it, though - I don't remember her having a particularly bad limp, and she took gym class and played at recess the same as the rest of us.

I read your reply above,I am impressed that a girl with a polio affected leg and a caliper could take part in gym classes. It must have taken a lot of courage to do that.When you think about it,a girl with a lame leg requires exercise for the rest of her body just as we all do. I have seen one lady locally who has a severely lame left leg walking at considerable speed such that one would be hard pressed to catch up.I have also seen a young girl wearing the current fashion of hotpants and tights even though she had a short,thinner right leg. I think that nowadays,girls have more self-confidence in such matters,although people are still inclined to stare at anyone who has a less than perfect body.
Regards,
Tom

[Sattua]

I'm 31. My grandfather had had polio which left him with one leg shorter than the other. He had to have one shoe built up, but the wear and tear still left him needing two knee replacements and a hip replacement over the course of his life. He died of bone cancer complications when I was 21.

My great-great aunt also had polio, and she died when I was twelve. She had polio when she was a teenager and some kind of debilitating fever the year after. She had to learn how to walk again twice, and walked with a cane the rest of her life. Her fiance left her. She then got a job reporting for the Indianapolis Star and lived a swingin' single lifestyle in a downtown apartment ;)

[Jophiel]

I'm 39 and, when I was around 11-13 or so, my mother dated a guy who had polio as a child. He (left?) arm was notably atrophied compared to his other arm but he could still use it. He also had various spinal problems. I don't remember if one of his legs was affected or not. During the time my mother dated him, he went in for surgery to have metal rods inserted along his spine and had to spend quite a time in a "body cast" which was more of a plastic turtle shell affair that came on and off.

As I recall, he contracted the disease from the vaccine.

[MsRobyn]

I'm 40. I have a friend, who is in her (IIRC) late 60s who had it as a very young child. She wears custom shoes to make up for the difference in leg length, as well as the fact that one of her feet is a size 4.5 and the other 8.5. She's one of the most amazing women I've ever known, and that's before I knew about the polio.

[Koxinga]

I don't suppose anyone in developed countries here would have first hand experience with smallpox survivors (at least knowingly). Now that, I'd be curious about.

[Khadaji]

The mother of a friend had polio and is currently having some issues related to it - but I do not know the details.

[StusBlues]

My paternal grandfather had polio. He required a brace on one leg and always had to steady himself with one hand.

[campp]

My father had it as a child, but was left with no debilitation.

[california jobcase]

I'm 51. I knew one classmate who had it- wrecked her legs, but she could still walk. Two faculty members at my high school had bad limps because of it, my dad's cousin by marriage had it and limps badly these days, and I worked with a guy who had a bad leg because of it. That makes five people.

[andygirl]

I work in nursing homes and I've met two people with polio. I'm 29.

[chizzuk]

I don't suppose anyone in developed countries here would have first hand experience with smallpox survivors (at least knowingly). Now that, I'd be curious about.

Diphtheria is one that fascinates me. According to the CDC, the last case in the US was in 2003. But you hear about random measles, mumps, and pertussis outbreaks every few months or so, but never diphtheria. Why is that? Diphtheria and pertussis are in the same vaccine, so if people are skipping them and getting whooping cough, why aren't they also starting diphtheria outbreaks? Is the bacteria just not endemic in the US anymore while pertussis is?

[MsRobyn]

Because pertussis vaccine isn't always a component of the diphtheria/tetanus vaccine, so it's possible to go without the pertussis component. I think part of the issue is that most people recognize that diphtheria and tetanus are fatal, but they perceive pertussis as being less serious. The sprog had a classmate whose parents were clueless in that regard. They figured that they could skip the pertussis to prevent unspecified "problems" with the vaccine because "whooping cough is just a cough; how bad could it be?" The nurse had to send something home to all of the students that described just how bad pertussis is.

In a perfect world, parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids would be publicly shamed in the way that drunk drivers sometimes are. Then the rest of us would be able to make the decision about whether to let our kids play with them.

[Clothahump]

I'm 64, and remember when the first polio vaccines came out, in the 50s. All in all, I've known 5 people who'd had polio . . . not counting people with no visible effect. How many people have you known, if any? And please give your age.

I'm 63. My big sister had it bad when I was growing up. To this day, she walks with a severe limp when she walks at all; most of the time, she's in a powered chair now.

[Flyer]

My grandma had a brother (now dead) who had polio. He could walk, but not terribly far. He used those metal forearm crutches.

MODERATOR NOTE: (Link that was here redacted at the request of the linkee.)

[Sophistry and Illusion]

When I taught in Beirut (2000-2006), our department secretary (who at the time was well into her 60s) was a polio survivor. One of her legs was very weak, and so it affected her gait.

[Indistinguishable]

I have an uncle who had polio (as a child in India). His walk is fucked up, but he can do it, slowly and with difficulty (hunched over and usually balancing with a hand against the walls).

[tomdenny]

Yes - I used to know a lady who shopped at a consignment store I worked at on weekends.

One of her feet was a size 5 and the other a 9 due to polio. She always had to buy 2 pairs of shoes ('cus no amount of insoles is gonna turn a 5 into a 9).

She shopped at the store because they also clear and would have cute shoes in odd sizes so she could get a pair for a reasonable price. Sadly, she was also a total shoe girl. I always thought she would have had an easier time with handbags.

Did this lady allow you to fit the shoe on her polio leg?Some lame ladies do not like anyone touching their lame leg. She must have had quite a severe limp judging by the foot size difference. Did the small size shoe need to be built-up - most polio victims have a shorter leg due to paralysis.

[Siam Sam]

In my 50s, and I've known one. My Dad's boss had it as a child. He had a lifelong limp but was not what you would call incapacitated.

Also, looking it up, I see the last reported case of polio in Thailand was in 1997, which was not that long ago. But I have not known any Thais with it. Eradicated here now.

[Ferret Herder]

tomdenny, I'm just curious - is there any particular reason you've only ever posted on this board about lame women/women with leg or foot-related disabilties, often digging up threads that haven't had any activity for years in order to do so?

[alice_in_wonderland]

tomdenny, I'm just curious - is there any particular reason you've only ever posted on this board about lame women/women with leg or foot-related disabilties, often digging up threads that haven't had any activity for years in order to do so?

I don't know, but he sent me a PM with the exact same wording as his post here back in April, which I ignored, because it was creepy.

And to answer the question, because apparently there is a burning need for the information, I didn't fit the lady at all - she was perfectly capable of putting on her own shoes, and had no limp that I noticed. In fact, I wouldn't have even noticed the foot thing if she hadn't pointed it out and asked about various shoes.

[Kevbo]

The fellow who solod me in a glider. Had to wear one shoe with about a 3" sole. Anyone that flew at Calastoga probably knew Hal, but I knew him when he lived in Albuquerque. Loved that man.

ETA: I am 49. Leg braces and such were pretty common when I was in school. I remember getting the vaccine in 1st grade.

[levdrakon]

My mom was born in '28, and got it as a young girl. She was wheelchair bound for awhile but learned to walk again. She always walked with a "drop foot" or whatever it's called.

[Qadgop the Mercotan]

I don't know, but he sent me a PM with the exact same wording as his post here back in April, which I ignored, because it was creepy.
:eek:

Good move on your part, that.

[Neverender]

My dad has an atrophied calf due to polio, it's smaller in appearance to the other, but otherwise doesn't seem to affect him. He's never had a problem walking, or riding a bike etc. He was born in '54 (in England, fwiw).

[levdrakon]

tomdenny, I'm just curious - is there any particular reason you've only ever posted on this board about lame women/women with leg or foot-related disabilties, often digging up threads that haven't had any activity for years in order to do so?He posted a couple times when he signed up, and a couple times today. One of those is the same thread he was in when he signed up.

Limp fetish? Maybe, but I'd say "often digging up threads" is an exaggeration.

[MsWhatsit]

He posted a couple times when he signed up, and a couple times today. One of those is the same thread he was in when he signed up.

Limp fetish? Maybe, but I'd say "often digging up threads" is an exaggeration.

He has posted in exactly two threads. In both, his initial post revived them when they had been dormant for years. Additionally, in this one, he bumped the thread again after several months of dormancy. That's three instances of bumping months- or years-dormant threads out of five total posts on this message board.

As for your "maybe": Son, you need to get out more.

[Ferret Herder]

He posted a couple times when he signed up, and a couple times today. One of those is the same thread he was in when he signed up.

Limp fetish? Maybe, but I'd say "often digging up threads" is an exaggeration.
Ok, let's revise it to "only digging up old threads" as that appears to be his MO for his posts so far. Not to mention the "did you get to touch her feet?! Tell me!" bothering of Alice via both PM and post.

[China Guy]

I knew a couple. Uncles of friends. I'm 51

[LurkerInNJ]

One, in an iron lung from age 9 until his death in 1979 as an adult. I'm in my mid 50's.

[Atomic Mama]

I'm 63 (female). My male friend had polio as a young child. As a consequence, perhaps because his parents needed him to eat ANYTHING, he became a vegetarian!

Still is, to the best of my knowledge.

He's in good health now, as far as I know. Except that he practically died from a shotgun wound to the stomach (1970's). We were known for going into "bad neighborhoods" to search out great music (Chicago).