By William “Skip” Deegans
Seventy-five years ago this week, Wythe County, Virginia, had the largest outbreak of polio in the United States. One in every thirty people in Wytheville came down with the disease and ten percent died. No one knew what was causing the disease, how it spread, or how to treat it. The town almost completely shut down. Parents were scared to let their children leave the house. By August, the number of cases had slowed, and to this day it has not been determined why the incidences of polio jumped in Wythe County.
In 1952, 21,000 Americans contracted a paralyzing form of polio and 3,000 died. Patients who were unable to breathe on their own were dependent on the iron lung, an electric machine that was invented at Harvard University in 1929 to help patients maintain respiration. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was paralyzed by polio, was instrumental in the founding of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) and it’s March of Dimes promotional effort to raise money for research and treatment. Older readers may recall visiting the West Virginia State Fair in the 1950s and seeing the annual live exhibit of a person confined to an iron lung. These exhibits were meant to increase awareness of polio and encourage vaccination, but they came to an end when it was determined that at least some exhibitors were seeking donations for themselves and not helping the quest for a cure of the disease. The exhibits were certainly effective in frightening children.
Finally, in 1955 with support from NFIP, a vaccine that was developed by Albert Sabin was deemed safe to administer. For the most part, polio was eventually eradicated in the United States until recently when under-vaccinated citizens have led to an increase in cases.
Sources: Atlantic, March of Dimes, Virginia Humanities, The State Journal-Register (Illinois).
