Post-Polio Network
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Polio and Post-Polio in the Media
Stories of polio and post-polio in the media
In 1955 American Dr Jonas Salk became a hero overnight when he announced that he had successfully trialled a vaccine against polio. Salk's Australian colleague Dr Bazeley ensured that the vaccine was quickly available for local use and local schoolkids started lining up for their injections. The age of the great Australian polio epidemics was effectively over. In this program polio survivors remember their own "Polio Days". |
This is a Special Interest Group of Museums Australia. Their HaMMer newsletter can be downloaded from this site. Issue 24 (March 2003) presents new information about the ‘iron lung’ in Australia. Reminders of the poliomyelitis epidemics of the mid-20th century, ‘iron lungs’ or cabinet respirators in Australian museums are not all the same, although many are versions of the wooden ‘Both’ or ‘Nuffield’ respirator. This feature on respirators prompted lots more stories of iron lungs which subsequently appeared in Issue 25 (December 2003). Newspaper snippets tell how people in Melbourne fared using iron lungs in the 30's. |
This is an article written by polio patient Jim Vickers-Willis on what it is like to one minute be a famous entertainer, and the next to be lying on your back encased in an iron-lung which is needed for life support. |
A graphic novella (sub-titled "Polio: Its Story ...") by James Weldon, published by The Science Creative Quarterly. |
A Radio Master's Project is a radio documentary report or series of reports exploring a single topic, totaling approximately 25-30 minutes of air time. Master's documentaries aim for the highest level of sound production and storytelling achievement. This documentary lasting about 30 minutes was created by Molly Thomas, one of the Class of 1998 at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. |
A Dogma Upended From Down Under - Sister Elizabeth Kenny's Polio Treatment by Mark W. Swaim, MD, PhD. Dr Swaim is with Duke University's Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710. This essay was one of two honored with the Irwin A. Brody Award for essays on the history of medicine. |
The Haunting of Summers Past is a review by Meredith Hindley of "A Paralyzing Fear - The Story of Polio in America". She writes "Over the course of ninety minutes, A Paralyzing Fear demonstrates how the impulse to shun the polio's victims eventually gave way to a massive campaign of social action and philanthropy designed to provide care for polio sufferers and support research to find a cure. What Seavey ultimately crafts is an exploration into America's attitudes towards disease and fear of the unknown. |
The Polio Chronicle was published by the National Patients Committee at the Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation in Warm Springs, Georgia, USA, from July 1931 to February 1934. The library at Warm Springs possesses a total of 25 issues of the Chronicle. The Disability History Museum has 268 articles from the Chronicle in its online library - a fascinating look at polio in the 1930s. |
This site explores the history of polio, the science and philanthropy behind the vaccines, the experiences of people who contracted polio and their influence on American culture, and current global efforts at stopping transmission of the poliovirus. |
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