Richard Rudman
Doctor Jones
History 3450
5/16/19
The Polio Epidemic of 1916
The year is 1916 and you just woke up to your child struggling to breathe. He or she is just an infant so they try crying to alert you but it is too late. This unfortunate reality was the case for many Americans during the summer of 1916 when the polio outbreak occurred. According to the “History of Vaccines” website, more than 2,000 people would die in New York City alone in the 1916 epidemic. (HistoryofVaccines). Due to the spreading of the disease, polio would take the lives of about 6,000 people and leaving thousands more paralyzed. This epidemic would turn out to be one of the most fatal events to happen to the country and epically New York.
To understand how severe this epidemic was, I will discuss the side effects and who it effects mostly. The full name of the virus is poliomyelitis or infantile paralysis. As hinted in the name, mostly children and infants were effected by polio during this time period and would cause parents to forbid their children from going outside and during the hottest days cities would close theatres, schools, and stores would due to fear of the virus. According to the New York State Department of Health website “Polio is a viral disease which may affect the spinal cord causing muscle weakness and paralysis… enters the body through the mouth, usually from hands contaminated with the stool of an infected person. Polio is more common in infants and young children and occurs under conditions of poor hygiene.” (Department of Health). At a time where New York was still figuring out how the sanitation department was going to implement its procedures and other cleanly matters were being discussed, this virus was able to run rampant.
To understand how much this virus effected children and infants we can look back to the “History of Vaccines” website I discussed earlier. The website provide a “NYC Polio Epidemic Graph” which is provided by the “Historical Medical Library of the College of Physicians” (Figure 1). In this graph we can see that the total deaths in 1916 from poliomyelitis deaths was 1922 of all ages. The biggest group that was effected was children of 1 year old at 402 or almost a fifth of this population. To compare o older groups the total of 5-9 year olds was 321 while the next section of ages which was 10-14 year olds was only 54. As the ages increased the number of deaths decreased dramatically making it evident why parents at the time went to extreme lengths to protect their children.
Although this epidemic ended as quickly as it started, what doctors could do to help was limited. In the “History of Vaccines” website we can see doctors and nurses providing massage therapy for children. In one picture in particular which is captioned “Trained Masseuse treating a Paralyzed Leg.” We can see a child of no more than 5 years old having her left leg massaged. The child looks sad as she looks at the camera and the masseuse has a worried look on her face. (Figure 2). Another picture on the same page of the website titled “These polo patients all suffered eye paralysis” of 8 children no older than the age of 5 is shown. These children are either sitting in rocking chairs due to the paralysis of their legs along with their eyes or are sitting as doctors or nurses are in the back treating other patients. There were many cases similar to the one depicted in the picture. One that stands out to me is that of Debby Warner Anderson.
Anderson is the owner of the blog titled “Debby’s family genealogy blog” which she provides the history about her family in relation to the polio epidemic during this time period. She provides primary source documents about the epidemic such as a polio quarantine card which was posted on houses warning people to keep away. One of these sources that I will focus on is a newspaper article from the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” which was published on July 14th of 1916. The title of the article is “Advice to Mothers for Safeguarding Children-Health Dept. Suggestions”. This article suggests for parents to primarily be clean and to be weary of who they associate with. The article goes as far as to say “Don’t have children’s parties” which speaks to how fatal this virus was. (Anderson, figure 3) The article ends with a dark reminder that “there is no proprietary remedy for infantile paralysis.”
To this date there is still no cure for polio. According to the “Polio eradication” site they describe that there is no cure but there are safe and effective vaccines. (Polio Prevention) Unfortunately, there are still 200,00 new cases every year that include children as old as a few months to senior citizens. Based on the knowledge we have, hopefully one day we can find a cure so that people of all ages don’t have to lose the ability to walk or worse.
Works Cited
Anderson, Debby Warner. “Polio Epidemic of 1916 in Brooklyn, NY.” Polio Epidemic of
1916 in Brooklyn, NY., 1 Jan. 1970, debbysfamilygenealogyblog.blogspot.com/2017/02/polio-epidemic-of-1916-in-brooklyn-ny.html.
“Department of Health.” Poliomyelitis (Infantile Paralysis, Polio),
www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/poliomyelitis/fact_sheet.htm.
“NYC Polio Epidemic Graph.” New York City Polio Epidemic | History of Vaccines, www.historyofvaccines.org/content/new-york-city-polio-epidemic.
“Polio Prevention.” GPEI, polioeradication.org/polio-today/polio-prevention/.
Appendix
Figure 1: Poliomyelteic Deaths in the City of New York
Figure 2: A polio patient being massaged
Figure 3: Article posted in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Newspaper from July 1916
