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The Polio Epidemic

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The Polio Epidemic:
In the summer of 1916, a polio epidemic was killing and crippling children. Polio is a deadly infectious disease caused by a virus that spreads from person to person and invades a person’s brain and spinal cord, causing paralysis (Bush 281). Because the outbreak of polio occurred in an Italian community in New York, immigrants were to blame. Polio became one of the most feared diseases in industrialized countries. This was because it paralyzed hundreds of thousands of children every year (Bush 281). It was easy for polio to spread because there were few sanitary regulations. It was predominately a summertime disease because it was easy for flies to carry fecal contamination to food in summer. In 1916, researchers had little …show more content…
Jason Laday mentioned in his article that was posted in the Wall Street Journal that, “Mothers would stuff salt up their children’s noses and wear goose grease poultices or bags of garlic-scented gum around their necks. For some, onions were looked upon as a potential savior. However, nothing at the time really cured this disease”(Laday 1). Most victims with the disease would die within hours of their first symptoms, others victims lived for a few days. The human body can only live infected for a short amount of time unless properly …show more content…
One of the major achievements in medicine was the eradication of smallpox. Diseases, such as like tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and whooping cough were also greatly reduced throughout the world due to the use of antibiotics, improved sanitation, and childhood immunization programs (USCB 1). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, “the average life expectancy at the beginning of the 20th century was 47.3 years. A century later, that number had increased to 77.85 years, due largely to the development of vaccinations and other treatments for deadly diseases” (USCB 1). One of the reasons some historic diseases still exist is because people in poorer, third world countries cannot afford the vaccinations and treatments. This also explains why most of the diseases are in the poorer, developing countries. Despite the fact that many deadly diseases that are prominent today, such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, it’s only a matter of time until there are cures. From the way people were treated during the Black Death to the way health care is today, the advances in medicine are clearly seen. Most of the major diseases and illness that existed in in the past have been eradicated and although it took a lot of time and research, there are now more cures and treatments then

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