Google Doodle honors pioneering polio doctor Jean Macnamara - CNET

Google Doodle honors pioneering polio doctor Jean Macnamara - CNET
Dame Jean Macnamara: Google honours the work of pioneering polio scientist and doctor - The Independent
Measles and polio may come 'roaring back' as global vaccination programmes shut down - Telegraph.co.uk
Jeromesville 9-year-old's polio case created 1931 controversy | Area History - Richland Source

Posted: 31 Mar 2020 10:39 PM PDT

google-doodle-macnamara-2020 — Jean Macnamara was an Australian doctor and medical scientist whose work helped lead to the development of a vaccine for the virus.
Google

Jean Macnamara was an Australia doctor and medical scientist whose tireless hard work helped further our understanding and treatment of various forms of paralysis, including polio. Her work would later contribute to the development of a vaccine for polio.

For her contributions to understanding paralysis, as well as her dedication to improving children's health and welfare, Google on Wednesday honored Dr. Macnamara with a Doodle on her 121st birthday.

For almost as long as Google has been around, it's livened up its barebones search page with artwork that draws attention to notable people, events, holidays and anniversaries. Google often turns its spotlight on heroes of the medical community, including Dr. Virginia Apgar, who developed a quick method for evaluating the health of newborns, and Dr. Rene Favalor, a heart surgeon who pioneered coronary artery bypass surgery. With much recent attention on the coronavirus, Google earlier this month honored hand-washing pioneer Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis.

Born in Beechwood, Victoria, on April 1, 1899, Macnamara graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1925 with a doctorate in medicine. While serving as a resident doctor at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne that year, a polio epidemic struck the city.

At the time, polio was still a much-feared virus that infected a person's spinal cord, causing paralysis and sometimes death in children. Those who survived were likely to be disabled for the rest of their life.

During her time at the hospital, while collaborating with former classmate and future Nobel Prize winner Macfarlane Burnet, the pair demonstrated that there was more than one strain of the poliovirus, a discovery that would prove valuable in the development of the Salk vaccine in 1955.

Continuing her studies of polio with visits to clinics and research institutions in the US and Europe, Macnamara became interested in physical treatments for the disease, especially the use of splints to immobilize the patient's paralyzed limbs until the damaged nerve had recovered. She spent much of the rest of her life working with polio patients, as well as developing restraining devices with a splint maker.

For her efforts to alleviate the suffering of polio patients, Macnamara was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1935. She died of heart disease in 1969 at the age of 69.

Dame Jean Macnamara: Google honours the work of pioneering polio scientist and doctor - The Independent

Posted: 31 Mar 2020 08:53 AM PDT

Google is celebrating the life and career of doctor and pioneering disease scientist Dame Jean Macnamara on what would have been her 121st birthday.

Born in Australia on 1 April 1899, Macnamara realised while growing up during World War I that she wanted "to be of some use in the world".

In 1925, Macnamara's opportunity came, when a polio epidemic struck Melbourne the same year she graduated from medical school.

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For the next six years, Macnamara worked as a consultant and medical officer to the Poliomyelitis Committee of Victoria, where her focus turned to "treating and researching the potentially fatal virus, a particular risk for children," according to the Doodle.

Her research on the disease, in collaboration with future Nobel Prize winner Sir Macfarlane Burnet, eventually led to the discovery that there are multiple strains of polio. The findings would be important later on when a polio vaccination was developed in 1955.

Macnamara's dedication to researching the virus meant she also found many new methods of treatment and rehabilitation for children, which included splints and restraining devices, throughout her lifetime.

Her method included splinting the paralysed part of the body until the damaged nerve had recovered, and then re-educating the muscles, according to the Australian National University's Dictionary of Biography.

A decade after graduating from medical school, Macnamara was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1935.

Macnamara treated patients until her death at the age of 69 from cardiovascular disease in 1968.

Measles and polio may come 'roaring back' as global vaccination programmes shut down - Telegraph.co.uk

Posted: 31 Mar 2020 07:36 AM PDT

The coronavirus outbreak could lead to a resurgence of childhood diseases such as measles and polio, as the pandemic has shut down routine vaccination schedules and disrupted supply chains, experts have warned.

While the unprecedented interventions introduced to stem the Covid-19 pandemic should prevent other disease outbreaks in the short term there is a real concern about a potential explosion of infectious, preventable illnesses when life returns to "normal".

Across the globe, planned efforts to vaccinate children against childhood diseases, including measles and polio, have already been suspended.

Dr Robin Nandy, global chief of immunisation at Unicef, told the Telegraph that the UN agency has paused all routine and emergency vaccinations because of concerns that they could further the spread of the coronavirus.

"We do not want to contribute to the Covid problem through immunisation programmes, so we are recommending that all campaigns are temporarily suspended as they bring a lot of people together. We don't want to do any harm."

"It would be inappropriate for us to recommend a campaign when the government is ordering a shut down as it would be impossible to conduct it at the right time," he added.

Already, about 20 million children a year miss out on vital vaccinations according to Unicef and the World Health Organization. A report last year showed that global coverage for childhood vaccines including diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis and measles has stagnated at roughly 86 per cent since 2010, well below the 95 per cent required to avert outbreaks.

At his daily press briefing on Monday Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, said that essential health services must not fall victim to the coronavirus epidemic.

"Previous outbreaks have demonstrated that when health systems are overwhelmed, deaths due to vaccine-preventable and treatable conditions increase dramatically.

"Even though we're in the midst of a crisis, essential health services must continue. Babies are still being born, vaccines must still be delivered, and people still need life-saving treatment for a range of other diseases," he said.

In Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria polio vaccination campaigns have stopped as workers have been redeployed to Covid-19 prevention. These countries are the last reservoirs of the disease in the world and Dr Kate O'Brien, WHO's director of immunisation, acknowledges suspension will have harm global polio eradication efforts.

"We do expect a rise in polio cases as a result of the impact of Covid-19. WHO is resolved to finish the job [of eradication]. We want to make sure the programme is able to not only lend support to protecting communities from Covid-19 but build on that and resume when the outbreak is over," she said.

Dr O'Brien added that WHO did not have systematic surveillance of which countries had suspended vaccination programmes.

"Our concern is global - for every child, everywhere. Vaccines are for the life course and it's not just infants and children. Adolescents, pregnant women and older people all need vaccines. Our concerns are for every country and every person who needs a vaccine."

A three year old who developed complications that may leave her blind after contracting measles, lies on a bed in the measles isolation ward in the DRC Credit: REUTERS/Hereward Holland

There is particular concern about measles as there has been a huge resurgence of this highly contagious disease in the last few years due to falling vaccination rates.

In 2018 there were 9.7m million cases of measles and 142,300 deaths – the vast majority of which were in children under the age of five. Experts believe that the figures for 2019 will be even higher after the widespread outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where 6,000 children died, and Samoa.

Dr O'Brien said: "Measles anywhere is measles everywhere. We have very high concern about maintaining immunisation coverage and protecting people everywhere from diseases that will come roaring back if communities are not vaccinated."

But with around a fifth of the global population under lockdown Dr Nandy said that social distancing measures introduced for the coronavirus may have a positive - albeit temporary - impact on other infectious diseases.

But he added that the real danger is when restrictions are lifted - unless vaccine campaigns are ramped up at this point, then the coronavirus pandemic could be shortly followed by other outbreaks, putting further pressure on already stretched health services.

"Measures introduced to limit the spread of Covid will contribute to limiting the spread of other diseases too - but once life starts going on as usual and people mingle once again, we do not want another outbreak of a vaccine preventable disease.

"And so we are saying that countries need to be mindful of this and start planning how to catch up on missed vaccine doses as soon as possible after disruption," he said.

Dr Nandy added that supply chains and the manufacture of vaccines had been hit by staff absence and border closures.

"We are monitoring the situation on an hourly basis and doing all we can when we have a window of opportunity to supply vaccines to countries, even overstock them in some areas, so they are able to deal with the short term interruptions later."

Dr O'Brien added that some programmes may struggle to resume after a suspension of operation.

"A pause is predicated on the assumption there could be an immediate catch up in the response whenever it is lifted. That presumes that programmes are ready to set up and people know they have to come immediately," she said.

A health worker gives a polio vaccination to a child in Lahore, Pakistan Credit: AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary

Yet some aid agencies are already warning that countries with weak health systems and those that have been affected by conflict will struggle to impose the type of lockdown that could stem the coronavirus outbreak and prevent a resurgence of other infectious diseases.

Countries that have reported Covid-19 cases now include Venezuela, whose health system has collapsed due to an ongoing economic crisis, and the DRC, which has been battered by a nearly two-year Ebola outbreak.

According to a new Unicef report published today, without urgent help the country's battered healthcare system will not only struggle to tackle the coronavirus, but also to contain existing measles and cholera epidemics.

Dr Esperanza Martinez, head of health at the International Committee of the Red Cross, said countries like this were completely unprepared for mounting threat of Covid-19.

"There's no testing and there's also a lack of supplies. We don't have gowns, gloves, masks or any protective gear," she told the Telegraph. "To control the outbreak we need to test, we need to isolate, we need to put in practice basic infection prevention and control but these are extremely hard in many of the countries that are starting to show cases."

Dr Martinez added that the virus would thrive in an environment such as an urban slum or a refugee camp where people were living in cramped conditions and social distancing and isolation would be impossible.

And without routine vaccinations, other infectious diseases could also flourish, she said.

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Jeromesville 9-year-old's polio case created 1931 controversy | Area History - Richland Source

Posted: 30 Mar 2020 06:30 AM PDT

JEROMESVILLE -- Until the development and widespread distribution of the polio vaccine (1955 through the 1960s), infantile paralysis (polio) was one of the most feared and highly infectious diseases in America.

Some have compared it to the panic HIV/AIDS would cause in the 1980s. But in this instance, a single case of polio could shut down an entire community.

In February, 1931 such a case occurred in Jeromesville when 9-year-old Quinton Dague fell ill for two days before a doctor diagnosed him with infantile paralysis. Though he had remained home during his illness, the school took quick action and suspended classes indefinitely until health authorities determined it was safe to resume.

A child specialist from Ashland and the County Board of Health physician both came to assist the local doctors. A lecture course scheduled for that week was cancelled, as was the basketball game with Loudonville and several other public events.

Fortunately, the same day as the diagnosis was made a serum arrived by bus and multiple treatments were given to Quinton, who seemed to begin to recover, as well as precautionary treatments for other children in the community.

The usefulness of the serum was controversial in the medical community, as it was harvested from patients who had recovered from polio. The weakened virus, harvested from recovering patients, was then given to new patients with the hope their immune system would be able to suppress it and prevent more serious developments (while similar to the same philosophy of a vaccine, this was administered to already sick patients with weakened immune systems).

Due to the low numbers of recovered patients, some serums, once harvested from the recovered patient, were then "grown" in horses to increase supply levels of the serum.

The serum appeared beneficial to Quinton, who fought in World War II and lived until 1985, but other patients were not so fortunate.

The serum experiments in the 1930s ultimately proved more fatal than the disease itself, and whether or not the serum actually prevented the disease or assisted in recovery was never proven.

More information on the Cleo Redd Fisher Museum can be found at this link.

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