Malaria was a common, well-known malady that struck
servicemen in World War II. Less well-known was polio.
Polio, or infantile paralysis, was thought to be a
childhood disease. It conjured frightening images of crippled children
struggling to walk with braces, people locked in Iron Lungs that breathed for
them, and death. But polio will strike anyone, anywhere.
World War II saw high numbers of polio cases affecting
both civilians and military, at home and abroad.
Polio’s cause was unknown in the 1940s. People
believed that good hygiene and sanitation would prevent the disease. The common
house fly was a suspect. After all, malaria and other diseases were borne by
insects. In fact, polio spread through human feces. It flourished with poor
sanitation. Ironically, the clean environment of the United States and Western
countries shielded people from viruses needed to build up their immunity.
Diagnosing polio was difficult because it began by
resembling the flu. Fever and headaches would soon be joined by acute pains in
the legs, back, and neck.
Western Europe did not present an environment for
contracting polio. Only forty-nine servicemen were diagnosed with polio in the
European theater during the war. In the Mediterranean, Africa and the Middle
East, the Philippines, and in the China-Burma-India theater, polio became a
serious problem. Medical officers at first dismissed the possibility of polio
because the native populations were unaffected. The native people, however, had
developed immunity in their environment from childhood. Americans proved to be
susceptible.
Compounding the problem was the availability of
quality medical care. And if a victim had bulbar polio which restricted
breathing and swallowing, the patient required a respirator, scarce in remote
locations.
A polio patient encased in an Iron Lung is visited by his children. |
Forms of treatment had included quarantine, splinting
muscles to relax them, and injections of serum taken from recovering patients,
which proved to offer no benefit. In 1940, an elderly Australian nurse,
Elizabeth Kenny, came to America with a new treatment. She had treated a polio
patient in 1911 following the advice of her mentor: “Do the best you can.”
Her treatment for the primary symptom of muscle pain
was to wrap the muscles in strips of woolen cloth soaked in hot water. She
mistakenly thought the muscles were in spasms, and the heat treatment would
relieve the pain. Her lack of knowledge led to a breakthrough.
The Kenny method caught on, and therapists also
performed range-of-motion exercises to retrain the muscles. One problem arose
with the wartime manufacturing ban on home laundry machines. The need for moist
heat prompted the War Production Board to lift the ban so the Electric
Household Utilities Company could provide the needed equipment.
Hydrotherapy also proved beneficial. The buoyancy of
thermal water enabled patients to perform some exercises with their otherwise
paralyzed limbs. The military included occupational therapy as well. Occupying
the minds of wounded or paralyzed servicemen with crafts or other tasks kept
them in a more positive frame of mind, rather than dwelling on their
misfortune.
If the patient had the bulbar polio and his chest
muscles were paralyzed, he needed to be placed in an Iron Lung, a cylindrical
steel drum. The head and neck remained outside, with the rest of his body enclosed
in the air-tight compartment. Pumps controlling airflow would decrease and
increase the air pressure within the chamber, and on the patient’s
chest. When the pressure was below that in the lungs, the lungs expanded and
atmospheric pressure pushed air from outside the chamber in through the person’s
nose and airways to keep the lungs filled; when the pressure rose above that in
the lungs, air was expelled, mimicking the breathing. Iron Lungs were expensive, about $2,000, and they
relied on electricity. Having them available in remote locations was
impossible.
Having contracted the disease at the advanced age of
39 in 1921, President Roosevelt's personal quest for mobility led him to transform an old spa at
Warm Springs, Georgia, into a hydrotherapy center for polio survivors. It became one of two primary centers for servicemen who contracted polio during the war. The other was in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
With the introduction of the Salk and Sabin vaccines in the 1950s, the threat of polio in the United States quickly faded.
Very interesting once again. A girl from my congregation had polio when I was little. That's all I remember - and of course getting the vaccine.
ReplyDeleteWasn't that vaccine something to drink?
DeleteIf you get the chance to visit Warm Springs, you need to go. It's been years since I visited, but it's fascinating.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, Terri!
It must be. Roosevelt really did so much for polio victims.
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