Not quite making the front page of the newspaper, but headline news on page 5, nonetheless, is the report of outbreaks of polio in Syria and Iraq. Polio. A disease that has been preventable since the mid-1950s. Why has it not been completely eradicated from the earth? Why? Why? Why?
I am a polio survivor — twice. The first time I contracted this horrendous disease, I had celebrated my fifth birthday just a month earlier. Springtime. April showers . . . . Flowers blooming. Trees blossoming before leafing out in varying shades of green. Easter. My brother’s 13th birthday.
My brother’s birthday is April 12 and we had celebrated Easter just a few days prior to this momentous day when David became a teenager. On Easter Sunday, our family had gone to Mass — as we did every Sunday — and then gathered with aunts, uncles, and cousins for an Easter egg hunt and a traditional Easter dinner. Because I was so young, I have only vague memories but I do remember one of my cousins asking me why I didn’t want to hunt for chocolate Easter bunnies. As my mother told the story, I was lethargic and clingy that day. By the time we returned home later in the afternoon, I was running a fever — a high fever. None of the other children were sick, and to ensure that my brothers and sisters did not catch whatever bug I had come down with, my mom put me to bed.
David’s birthday was a few days later and my fever had not broken. Plans for a 13th birthday party were postponed while I was taken to the hospital where I was diagnosed as having polio. The family was quarantined. Mom was terrified her youngest child might die or be permanently crippled; she was terrified her older children would also become ill. Thank God, I was the only one who did get sick.
April 12, 1955 — a date my family will never forget, along with hundreds of thousands of other families with young children at the time. April 12, 1955, was the day, at a press conference at the University of Michigan, that the Salk poliovirus vaccine trials were announced a success. April 12, 1955, was my brother, David’s, 13th birthday. April 12, 1955 was the day I was diagnosed with polio. Polio is something I rarely discuss — it is painful, both physically and emotionally. However, polio became a part of who I am, and surviving it influenced many of the decisions I have made as an adult.
Yes, I am disabled. I recovered from that initial bout of polio, tossing the crutches and braces in the trash by the time I was 10. Other than one leg being slightly shorter than the other, I had no noticble residual effects of the polio. By inserting a lift in my shoe, no one was the wiser that I had ever been sick. I could run and play with my friends, my cousins, my siblings. I could climb trees, I could ski, I played baseball on my high school and college teams. Polio did not hold me back or slow me down. Until I got sick again. I had been living in Eastern Europe where polio had not been completely eradicated. This time, I didn’t recover quite as well as the first time. I couldn’t walk without assistance, I couldn’t run and play, I couldn’t ski, I couldn’t climb trees. I needed to use a wheelchair.
My health has improved significantly since that second bout of polio. I use a wheelchair, but I am able to walk with the aid of braces and crutches. I ski on a mono-ski, I play wheelchair basketball, I “run” in 5K and 10K charity races, and I have been known to “hike” accessible mountain trails.
Now, as we approach the 60th anniversary of the Salk Poliovirus Vaccine Trials, polio is still prevalent in some third world, war-torn countries. Children growing up in Syria fear for their lives as bombs explode around them. Children growing up in Syria are hungry and homeless because of terrorism. Children growing up in Syria are contracting polio — a disease that could have been eradicated from Earth half a century ago. Polio workers in Pakistan have been targeted by the Taliban and murdered — while vaccinating children. Because of the threats to their lives, many volunteers have stopped working. Even the police, who are committed to protecting the workers, fear for their lives. According to The Rotary Club’s campaign End Polio Now, only three countries remain endemic to polio. Southeast Asia was recently declared polio free. With your help, this devastating disease can finally find its way into the annals of history, just as small pox did three decades ago.
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