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Polio Impact On Children In The 1950s

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Polio Polio is a disease that mainly would affect children who were under the age of five and would usually leave them paralyzed or even take their lives. The infectious disease had a great impact on America in 1950’s because nobody really understood where or how these children were getting Polio. Out of fear and concern, the American people came together to try to find the cause and the cure of the illness. The Polio epidemic was affecting the people in large numbers, a sum of 57,000 victims in the year of 1952. Parents were afraid to let their children go to public pools. Scientist knew that it was a viral disease but, were not sure of how it was transmitted or how to treat it. Polio was traumatizing for parents and children alike.
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One of the biggest contribution was the polio vaccine.

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Dr. Leonard Hayflick lived in Philadelphia during the 1946 Polio epidemic. He was a teenage boy who would soon grow up loving microbiology and wanting to make a career out of it. He enrolled at Penn University, where he was taking classes like math, chemistry, and zoology. One course in particular that stood out to Dr. Hayflick was bacteriology. Bacteriology is now known as microbiology, the study of viruses, bacteria, and other microscopic organisms.

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This allowed the vaccine to be cheap to research and have a low cost. Since it was cheap to research Albert Sabin was able to create an oral polio vaccine. The oral vaccine is now used to vaccinate people in developing countries. Around the 1950s there was a polio epidemic and the cheap cost made it available to everyone, and since 1979 there have been no reported cases of polio in the United States. It should be disclosed that at the time patenting a biological agent was unheard

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This allowed for more experiments to be done which lead to the development of the polio vaccine. As stated by Neil Bhavsar, “the vaccine developed… was only possible because HeLa cells were able to survive in Vitro. The HeLa cells were easy to infect and study, and therefore provided the perfect subject” (Bhavsar). The vaccine itself was developed by a scientists of the name of Jonas Salk. The ability for the cells to be easily infected allowed for the continued development of the polio vaccine.

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Polio is an infectious viral disease that affects the central nervous system. The year 1950, a year before Henrietta Lacks died, was the peak of the polio

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Polio: An American Story written by David Oshinsky highlights the journey to the discovery of a vaccine which would finally put an end to the once mysterious disease, Poliomyelitis. The journey begins in Otter Valley, Vermont, as it was the first Polio epidemic to be documented in the United States. Unknowingly, it would take years after the first epidemic in 1894 to find a solution for this frightening illness. The disease dates back to ancient time, with cases describing the victims to be left with disfigured limbs and some eventually to be paralyzed. Oshinsky identifies that the disease appeared in three phases: endemic, which occurs in a sporadically within a group of people, epidemic, in which it affected many people and spread rapidly,

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The spread of polio could not seem to be stopped until a vaccine was found. Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky describes the stories of how polio was triumphed. Polio impacted the United States by affecting the lifestyle of people, attracting the attention of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and by influencing scientists to investigate and experiment to find the cure for the deadly disease. Poliomyelitis is an infectious disease caused by poliovirus, which can cause chronic paralysis and weakness in the nerves.

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By 1951, Jonas discovered that there are three different types of polio. His goal was to create a “killed” virus in which he would treat patients with the disease. In 1952, testing for the vaccine began. National testing began which made this the largest clinical trial in medical history. The vaccine was administered to roughly 1.8 million children that were infected with polio.

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When Roosevelt contracted polio in 1921, he fought to regain the use of his legs. He devoted his money to help people with disabilities. His steady will grew stronger as he fought through his recovery. Franklin Roosevelt was a determined man.

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Those against mandatory vaccines deem that the chickenpox, measles, rubella and rotavirus all have symptoms that can be treated with oral medicines and creams. Vaccine-preventable diseases have not disappeared so vaccination is still necessary and the diseases that decreased tremendously were due to the impact of vaccines. The CDC notes that many vaccine-preventable diseases are still in the United States or "only a plane ride away." Although the paralytic form of polio has largely disappeared thanks to vaccination, the virus still exists in countries like Pakistan where there were 93 cases in 2013 and 71 in 2014 as of May 15. The polio virus can be incubated by a person without symptoms for years; that person can then accidentally infect an unvaccinated child or adult in whom the virus can mutate into its paralytic form and spread amongst unvaccinated people.

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Disease has always plagued humans since the beginning of their existence. It has also changed the course of history, whether it helped win wars, destroy civilizations from the inside, or help move technology ahead. There have been many deadly diseases in the world, and in the United States alone despite its young age compared to the other countries. However, one of the most devastating and important diseases in the United States’ history is Poliomyelitis or Polio for short. The polio epidemic affected lives of people starting in the early twentieth century, but it reached its peak in the 1950’s.

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He decided to start helping others who had polio, and eventually funding an organization to hopefully give others the freedom to walk again unlike himself. March of Dimes, the organization FDR started, eventually manufactured an efficient vaccine to rid the disability from others. “Factory closings, farm foreclosures, and bank failures increased, while unemployment soared. Roosevelt faced the greatest crisis in American history since the Civil War" (7)..” (7).

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There have been many deadly diseases in the world, and in the United States alone. However, one of the most important diseases in American history is Poliomyelitis. There were crucial ideas that came out of the Polio. The polio epidemic affected lives of people in the 1950’s both with and without being diagnosed, and despite it being cured Polio has changed the world and its views of vaccines and medicine, rehabilitation and government views. Having been around for centuries, Poliomyelitis has dated back to ancient Egypt, but it became a major issue for the United States between the 1940’s and 1950’s.

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I come from a family of law enforcement. I have always wanted to continue the family tradition and work in criminal justice, but I was never sure exactly what field I wanted to focus on. My view on law enforcement, specifically police officers, has been narrow. In the past, my uncle was involved in a shooting in which his partner lost his life and my uncle was shot and left in critical condition. Growing up knowing this has helped me to understand how dangerous it can be for law enforcement.

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Vaccinations When it comes to vaccinations, there are many different opinions on immunizing a child, especially when that child’s parent has a strong like or dislike towards vaccinating. Immunizations have existed for at least a thousand years and as technology advances more, there are new vaccines being designed to help protect our children from contracting contagious and sometimes deadly diseases, such as Bordetella pertussis, polio, and even influenza. For decades, all 50 states have required that parents vaccinate their children against various diseases, including polio and measles, as a prerequisite to enrolling them in public schools (Ciolli, 2008). Enrollment in public school requires up to date vaccinations in order to protect the children and even the adults from contracting and spreading a disease, possibly causing an epidemic.

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