Access: Persistent Polio
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A couple more links
The type of Australian-designed iron lung used in NZ
http://samhs.org.au/Virtual%20Museum/Medicine/Bothurinlung/bothironlung-netley.htmlThe UK Nuffield Foundation donated one to every hospital in the British Empire.
http://www.marchofdimes.org/glue/images/Main_celeb_4.png
Elvis getting his vaccine shot. He was a great supporter of the March of Dimes -
Well done Hillary, you have covered this well
I well remember the day off school work in the late 50s when we were given our injections, with the drops being given a year or so later ( much less traumatic)
Rotary may have an image of old fuddy duddies but we have poured huge amounts of money into the eradication of polio with a lot of help from the Bill Gates Foundation and various governments
Africa has been free for one year (three years free are required) and the numbers of infections in the sub continent are at a record low
We are finally "this close" to eradicating a second disease from the World -
Hilary Stace, in reply to
Thanks Raymond. Yes Rotary have been dedicated to this cause for a long time. I am from the era when we lined up in the classroom to have the cherry pink drink in little paper cups.
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A fascinating local history Hilary. Thank you.
Raymond’s right about Rotary’s role – without that impetus, and the support of the Gates Foundation, this effort would have stalled or slowed. We’re now getting there, very quickly. The figures that Hilary mentions are found here, and you can see countries being crossed off the list. It has now been almost a year since the last case in Nigeria, for example. There is some circulating vaccine derived polio in Madagascar, but this is being contained.
http://www.polioeradication.org/Dataandmonitoring/Poliothisweek.aspx
This article illustrates very well how the challenges posed in Pakistan and Afghanistan are being faced and overcome.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/health/pakistan-polio-every-last-child-documentary.html
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The 'polios' I have met (that is what they tend to call themselves) are some of the staunchest pro-vaxxers you could find (unlike the autism community which still argues about it).
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Great social history of the disease and its effects in NZ. Thank you.
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In a magnanimous gesture, Salk never patented the vaccine.
"Vaccine Developer Chooses Not to Exploit Human Misery"
Not a headline we're likely to see nowadays.
Excellent post Hilary, as usual.
When is the book coming out?
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Sue,
my mum remembers having a whole 3 months off school when polio hit woodville and all the kids were kept at home just in case. it was a most boring time as the one thing you couldn't do was go out and play with your friends.
My neighbour meets up with a group of past polios every year, the group keeps getting smaller and smaller, and now they are older, most people just assume they have trouble moving due to age
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A unique and highly readable personal survivor's account - the late June Opie's Over My Dead Body.
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Thanks Joe. I was going to mention June Opie as her book was very popular in our school library and I remember it very vividly. I didn't realise she was a New Zealander till recently. She wrote a follow up in the 1990s.
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She caught polio on the boat to the UK - basically on her OE. Then spent a long time in the dreaded iron lung recovering - her descriptions of it are horrific.
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Hilary Stace, in reply to
My oldest sister remembers schools being closed for most of the first term in one epidemic. They weren't allowed out of their little street or to play with neighbourhood kids and certainly not allowed to go to the pool, even though it was a very hot summer. But they were all so terrified of polio they complied.
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and in a weird twist of fate, a practice nurse in the UK in the early sixties contracted a mild form of polio from the vaccine.
I knew this person, there may have been others.
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OPV is getting phased out worldwide because of the risk it can revert back to virulent form in rare cases. It hasn't been used in NZ for a decade or so, and I can just about remember its odd strawberry chemical taste from about 1981. But it's easier to store and administer than IPV and is still used in developing countries because of that.
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TracyMac, in reply to
I suppose the difference these days is that probably no pharmaceutical researchers are independently or govt funded these days. Good luck getting a Big Pharma megacorp to give up its IP for the common good these days.
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Rosemary McDonald, in reply to
Good luck getting a Big Pharma megacorp to give up its IP for the common good these days.
....because there's gold in them there 'ills...
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Ebola vaccine research has been at least partially government-funded. The NZ government funded the development of the MeNZ-B vaccine back in the 2000s. I'm sure there are other examples.
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Seriatim, in reply to
Yes there have been others; I remember reading that it's an "unstable" vaccine. Whatever that means.
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Thanks for the story, Hilary. My mother sang the praises of Sister Kenny as a person who stood up to the medical fraternity and persevered. I well remember the 1940's epidemic. It was a fabulous time for many of us kids.Glorious summer! I was lucky because my folks had access to a primitive bach and I could swim (when the tide was right) and fish and when the weekends arrived my dad would bring our little launch and we would go fishing. I even saw a movie - we called in at the fishing lodge at Otehei Bay and they showed movies to their guests.
I seem to recall doing correspondence school lessons.
My husband, Leon, lived in Wanganui and made a canoe which provided many happy hours on the river. Many years later an astute GP discarded the idea that Leon's sore knee was arthritis, and after careful measuring of the legs said it looked like he had had polio. Casting back in time Leon recalled having pneumonia as a young man, initially diagnosed as swinging the lead. He was very week for a long time and that's when he probably had polio. And yes, some years after that he had post polio syndrome, and sometimes needed a stick for walking. But he knew how very lucky he had been.
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Angela Hart, in reply to
and now we are all so lucky to have access to safe and effective vaccines, but unfortunately so many people have no experience of serious illness and believe the anti-vaccination crackpots, so that we have whooping cough, measles and other diseases we don't need to be contending with still affecting our children.
I remember having whooping cough along with my three siblings. Poor mum! I also remember being given the polio vaccine on a sugar cube and her relief that this was available. -
Hilary Stace, in reply to
One of the concerns of polios today is the lack of understanding or knowledge of polio by clinicians. Most will have never seen a case. Several said they liked new immigrant doctors from Asia or Africa as they usually had up to date experience.
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I reckon people calling themselves 'polios' is no different that calling themselves 'cripples' or 'spastics'. Mediating self-identification and group interests has been poorly argued. Recent links remedying that are most welcome.
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Martin, in reply to
No different than me calling myself a para I reckon Sacha. And while para has absolutely no political connotations, I wouldn't strip 'polios' of any
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Sacha, in reply to
I could call us 'wankers' Martin but I doubt that reflects well on any of us.
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They refer to themselves as polios. I checked whether someone without polio could also use that term and it seems fine. Seems to be a convenient term without political overtones. That 'people with' language debate doesn't seem to be an issue. Perhaps because this is an older group predating disability identity and activism debates.
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