"A contagion of love swept the world. People observed moments of silence, rang bells, honked horns, blew factory whistles, fired salutes, kept their traffic lights red in brief periods of tribute, took the rest of the day off, closed their schools or convoked fervid assemblies therein, drank toasts, hugged children, attended church, smiled at strangers, forgave enemies." (Carter, 1). The date is April 12, 1955, and it had just been revealed that a vaccine for the disease called poliomyelitis, otherwise known as polio, had been discovered. The disease plagued the world for years, and finally, a cure was found. Polio was a powerful epidemic that not only paralyzed its victims, it crippled a nation, infecting history and changing the face of the United States forever.
There are three important issues to discuss to understand the disease; what Polio is, how it spread, and what its effects are. First, what is Polio? Poliomyelitis is defined as "an acute infectious disease caused by the poliovirus and characterized by fever, motor paralysis, and atrophy of skeletal muscles often with permanent disability and deformity and marked by inflammation of nerve cells in the anterior gray matter in each lateral half of the spinal cord -- called also infantile paralysis" (Merriam-Webster). The virus starts in the intestines, travels through the bloodstream and nervous system where it ruins the motor neutrons which causes the life-long paralysis (Dove). It usually begins with a headache, sore throat, and vomiting before the poliomyelitis paralyzes in the early phases of the symptoms. Polio more commonly occurs in younger children, but can also infect older children and teenagers. Polio may paralyze in two different ways. The first, as previously stated, paralyzes the limbs of the victim. The second paralysis affects the respiratory system, requiring an aid for breathing. It is not likely that an individual would contract both strains of the disease.
