This research paper presents the topic of polio and its effect on the United States from 1945 to 1970. Included in the discussion are the events that led to the polio outbreak in the 1940s, what happened to the victims and those surrounding the victims, and the "race" for the cure of polio.
Polioviruses are believed to have been widely circulated prior to the 18th century. It is postulated that initial infections took place in early infancy, when maternal antibodies transplacentally acquired, were at there highest. Lifelong exposure then provided continual boosting of immunity and paralytic infections were found to be rare.
In the 1900s, Americans believed that science and technology brought answers to the disease conquest. Bacterial sources of infections were discovered by scientists like Louis Pasteur, and principles such as sanitation, hygiene, and nutrition were becoming known. When polio struck in 1916, doctors, desperate for an answer, believed that this disease must be a result of unsanitary conditions, since it was a communicable virus, spread primarily by the fecal-oral route. The disease took on an element of shame for those who contracted it. The notion that sanitary conditions might actually have led to a lack of natural immunity and increased polio outbreaks, was not understood or even fathomable.
When Roosevelt contracted the disease, the shame associated with polio began to change. It became clear that this disease did not discriminate against the poor or the unclean. People who contracted polio began to understand that if they tried as hard as Roosevelt appeared to, they too might overcome their difficulties.
The 1916 epidemic died down, but causes of the disease remained a mystery. Prior to the vaccine era, sanitation conditions were continually improved in an effort to control disease and this allowed for the continued lack of repeated exposure to the polio virus in early infancy. Thus when ...