You are reading in Polio: a 20th century epidemic β Part of Epidemics. While many infectious diseases began to decline by the end of the s, incidents of polio increased to epidemic proportions.
What was going on? Poliomyelitis polio is an infectious disease that can cause spinal and respiratory paralysis. Children are particularly vulnerable to the disease, which used to be called infantile paralysis. There is no cure and if the infection affects the lung muscles or brain it can be fatal. Polio has been around for a long time, but it was never considered a major problem until the end of the s, when something unusual began to happen.
Like many other infectious diseases, polio spreads from person-to-person through the ingestion of faecal matter, often in food and water.
But while improvements in sanitation such as clean water and sewage systems led to the decline of diseases such as typhoid and cholera at the end of the s, outbreaks of polio began to increase. The size and number of epidemics continued to increase in Europe and America throughout the first half of the s. The authorities responded aggressively to control the spread of the disease. Every day the newspapers published the names and addresses of people identified with the disease.
Placards were nailed to their doors and their families were quarantined. Cinemas were closed, public gatherings were cancelled, and parents were told to keep children away from public places such as amusement parks, swimming pools, and beaches.
