One year down, two to go, India…

Way back in the mists of time, when I was born there was this illness called polio. It was everywhere and the fear of it meant empty beaches, playgrounds and swimming pools for the years the epidemic burned through North America.

A woman who had the early stages of the illness concealed the fact while she was in the same hospital room as my mother (and me, as is the way of maternity wards). When she finally admitted to a nurse she was feeling more than just a touch of the flu she had progressed to the 2nd stage of the illness: a return of aches and pains plus creeping paralysis.

When my mother found out she spent a few days in terror at every twinge, ache and pain. Being recently delivered of a bouncing baby girl meant, of course, no shortage of fuel for her fears. All the staff and patients were given shots of gamma globulin in an attempt to boost their immune system and my mom basically lived in the sitz bath attempting to sooth away her frets.

She was also assured her precious infant did not require any shots as my newly minted status conferred upon me an enhanced immune system. I’m still not sure if that is true but it made mom feel a whole bunch better. I had no way of communicating my gratitude.

This means I am just old enough to remember things like iron lungs and children my age wearing braces and using crutches.

I also remember being given an inoculation at a very young age, in fact it is my very first memory. Held tightly by my mother, looking around the bright white room and wondering why this strange woman was saying, “Don’t worry, it won’t hurt”  What won’t? … I can still remember quite clearly a) how wrong she was, it hurt a whole hell of a lot and b) a suspicion she knew it.

By the time I was in school, there were vaccines available and all children were receiving them. It became rare to see anyone much younger than myself in braces and, once again, summer was a celebration of pools and parks.

This memory was triggered in February with the announcement that India has been polio-free for 1 year. There are only 3 countries left in the world that are considered to still have endemic polio: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.

The illness that killed and crippled many thousands of children from my generation is about to go the way of smallpox. The fact that there are millions of people who do not know what the heck I’m talking about is mind-boggling wonderful.

Anyone who tries to tell  you vaccinations are bad, that they don’t work, that they cause more problems than they solve can go jump into an iron lung for a few hours and then come back to talk to me.

Oh, and here is a great interview with Bill Gates (aka Spawn of Satan), talking about the work with polio and the anti-vaccine campaign that still, for some reason, plagues us. (yes, the irony is deliberate)