Polio Precautions
December 18th, 2009
Polio was once so common that ads were placed in comic books warning against it (this particular ad is from the 1950s). The development of the polio vaccine was seen as an answer to parents’ prayers. Today, we’ve become complacent in large part because few remember how devastating a disease polio was and if we’re not careful, we stand to lose everything we’ve gained against the disease.
See also: pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus (lockjaw), rotavirus (a leading killer of children worldwide), Haemophilus influezae A (especially the pneumonia, epiglottitis, and meningitis), hepatitis A, meningococcal meningitis, hepatitis B (and chronic viral hepatitis and the increased risk of liver cancer), smallpox, chickenpox, influenza, diptheria, measles, mumps, and rubella (especially congenital rubella syndrome).
December 18th, 2009 at 7:09 am
Oh, but vaccines aren’t naaaatural!!!! And they only kill other people’s children, not and never our white upper middle-class families! And a high school dropout conspiracy nut says they cause autism, so they’re totally awful!!!!!
December 18th, 2009 at 10:04 am
“Don’t mix with new groups” ‘They carry disease! They’re filthy! Strange people do terrible things to you!’
And I’d thought accounts of 1950s paranoia were exaggerated.
December 18th, 2009 at 11:52 am
What? No link for polio? Complete with images of children in one of those iron lung contraptions? (sorry, I’d do it if I knew how)
December 18th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Reminds me of the story of a baby in Australia who died of pertussis (whooping cough). Funny thing: The parents of the baby were NOT anti-vax. The kids that exposed the baby to the disease before she was old enough to get the vaccine were.
Think anti-vaxers just hurt themselves? Nope, they hurt those too young to vaccinate…
December 18th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
But Jenny McCarthy said…
December 19th, 2009 at 9:02 am
I visit Dr. Scott’s site to read his terrific reviews of “House, M.D.” Remember that episode in which House lambasted some kid’s parent for being anti-vaccine? We could use some more of that common sense.
But before I get on my high horse about being pro-vaccine, I have to confess, I’m not all that anxious to get the swine flu vaccine. (I did get my seasonal flu shot.) I’m old enough to have been part of the Great Swine Flu Panic of 1976, when I received a swine flu shot courtesy of President Ford, and have been grateful ever since that I didn’t come down with Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Besides, being middle-aged, I’m not considered as high a priority for the current swine flu vaccine as kids and the elderly. So I guess I’ll bide my time.
December 21st, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Did you mean H. influenza B instead of A or am I misremembering? In my pediatrics internship we always called it “HIB”.
December 22nd, 2009 at 11:37 am
Yes, it’s supposed to say H. influenza B — the link goes to the CDC website on Hib. (Hib causes a form of bacterial meningitis that’s very dangerous for babies. The vaccine for it is very effective.)
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