By DARLENE VANN / Headline Surfer
EDGEWATER, Fla. -- I am very distressed to hear there is a young adult in Rockland County, NY, who was recently diagnosed with polio and paralysis as a result.
When I was a child there were thousands of children in iron lungs because they were paralyzed and their lungs would not work on their own. When Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for this scourge of a disease he needed to test the product. I was one of those tested and those of us were called polio pioneers. After I had been vaccinated I woke one night and called for my mother because I could not turn my head or swallow.
When I was a child there were thousands of children in iron lungs because they were paralyzed and their lungs would not work on their own. When Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for this scourge of a disease he needed to test the product. I was one of those tested and those of us were called polio pioneers. After I had been vaccinated I woke one night and called for my mother because I could not turn my head or swallow.
Those were the days when family doctors actually came to your house. Our doctor lived nearby and even though it was the middle of the night she called him in a panic. He arrived moments later in pants, a pajama top, and sockless shoes. He grabbed my head and turned it to the side. It turned and he sighed with relief.
None of us knew who got the vaccine and who the placebo but he knew I had the real vaccine. Because my head turned with no trouble he immediately told Mom and by now Dad, too, who woke with all the commotion to stop worrying.
After examining me, he diagnosed that I had strep throat and after giving me a shot of antibiotic wrote a prescription for penicillin and everyone returned to bed. He irradiated that horrible disease with his vaccine.
Now with anti-vaccine people not vaccinating their children all sorts of diseases we had wiped out are returning.
Other countries do not use the polio vaccine but do use the version that looks like a sugar cube but it is not as effective. This New York child had not left this country but evidently been in contact with a child who had the vaccine cube. Hearing that this disease may be returning made me weep.
I remember very well those children and some adults in those awful iron lungs with mirrors attached above them on the machines so they could see their visitors.
Naturally, back then they had to be in institutions to have professionals maintain the equipment. There was no bringing them home in those days. It was such an awful time.
Parents please look to history and see that vaccines have proven themselves for many years and have your kids vaccinated against polio, measles, and other time-tested remedies so these awful diseases do not return.
Measles is making a comeback lately, also. That just plain makes me angry that children and some adults are now getting diseases not meant to even be around anymore.
So take it from a 76-year-old polio pioneer and receiver of all those vaccines: Please have your children vaccinated. These vaccines are not causing autism; they are simply preventing your babies from diseases that can kill or paralyze them.
Protect your children as your parents protected you. All too often, history repeats itself in an ugly way when ignoring the past.
About the blogger: Darlene Vann of Edgewater, Florida has been writing her "Musings" blog for Headline Surfer since the 2008 launch of the award-winning 24/7 online news site via HeadlineSurfer.com, which is published by award-winning journalist Henry Frederick from Lake Mary, FL for the I-4 tourism corridor from greater Daytona Beach to Orlando. Originally from Brookfield, Conn., Vann moved to Central Florida with her family in 1964, graduating later that year from New Smyrna Beach High School. She attended Daytona Beach Community College for studies in medical records. She is retired from Ocean View Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in New Smyrna Beach where she was director of medical records.