Polio epidemic was scary time | Opinion - Wilkes Journal Patriot

Posted: 29 Apr 2020 09:00 AM PDT

Efforts in response to the coronavirus raise memories of another viral threat – the polio epidemic of the 1940s and early 1950s.

Polio spread through central North Carolina in the mid-1930s, followed by a wave in Wilkes and other western counties by 1944. About 860 cases were reported statewide in 1944, and about 2,500 cases with 143 deaths in 1948. It was a fearful time.

Before Dr. Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for polio (patented in 1955), the virus crippled an average of over 35,000 Americans each year. Children typically were the victims. Baby boomers have childhood memories of standing in line to be vaccinated.

Before it was determined that polio is usually caused by consuming food or water contaminated with feces of an infected person or not washing hands contaminated in the same way, fear of the disease was compounded by uncertainty of how it spread and how to prevent or treat it. Outbreaks returned every summer, contributing to the belief it was spread by mosquitos or flies.

DDT was widely sprayed in Wilkes County and elsewhere in an effort to fight polio by killing insects. The cancer-causing insecticide is now banned.

The July 29, 1948, front page of The Journal-Patriot reported that DDT was being sprayed "over outlying communities" in Wilkes from airplanes and that homeowners in and near the Wilkesboros were asked to spray their own premises with DDT.

Another story in that issue announced that North Wilkesboro Police Chief J.E. Walker and Wilkes Sanitarian E.R. Spruill were checking conditions of hog pens in town, with special attention to garbage disposal. Homes were checked to make sure garbage was in covered cans.

A list of residential sanitation practices, provided by Spruill, was published. It included special attention to privies and screens on doors and window to keep flies away.

Although not identified as "social distancing" at that time, these types of efforts to prevent the spread of the poliovirus were the subject of many articles in the newspaper in the 1940s and early-1950s.

Similar to now, there were periods in Wilkes when court and most public events were cancelled and movie theaters and other public venues were closed. Parents were urged to keep their children at home and away from all public places. Children were banned from downtown North Wilkesboro.

The Sept. 7, 1944, issue of The Journal-Patriot had a full-page ad from the Ministerial Association of the Wilkesboros announcing that Sunday, Sept. 10, was Sunday School Rally Day, marking the decision of local health authorities to lift an order banning children from attending Sunday school because of the risk of getting polio.

Numerous articles were published about money being raised to pay hospital costs of local people with polio and for researching the disease.

Topics dominating the front page of the July 24, 1944, issue of The Journal-Patriot were: local men in World War II, rationing of sugar and other products and polio.

One article said Wilkes School Superintendent C.B. Eller had announced that schools wouldn't open on the scheduled date of Aug. 14 to avoid students being exposed to polio. "If the polio epidemic subsides, Wilkes schools may open Aug. 28 or the first week in September," it stated.

Another article said 33 polio cases had been confirmed in Wilkes since June 1 and the number was climbing. It listed names of several victims, all from age 2 to 18.

An article in that issue told about Paul Osborne's program at the North Wilkesboro Lions Club on "the wonderful work that has been accomplished" at an emergency hospital for polio victims at Hickory. Osborne said specialists from many leading hospitals and universities were assisting at the hospital, which had eight "iron lungs."

Many people in Wilkes and other western N.C. counties went to this facility, called the Hickory Emergency Infantile Paralysis Hospital on Lake Hickory in Catawba County. It was built and staffed by the citizens of Hickory in just three days in June 1944, and came to be called the "Miracle of Hickory." Life Magazine covered it with a photo essay in its July 31, 1944, issue.

The July 31, 1951, issue of The Journal-Patriot reported on the Wytheville, Va., baseball team dropping out of the semi-pro Blue Ridge Baseball League because league directors were concerned about a severe polio epidemic in Wytheville.

The North Wilkesboro Flashers, along with teams in Mount Airy, Elkin, Galax, Va., and Radford, Va., were also in this league.

Some of the league's directors said people in their towns were hysterical about the polio epidemic in Wytheville. It said authorities in those other towns had forbidden the Wytheville team from playing there.

The article said Wytheville had the worst polio epidemic in the nation, with 11 deaths and over 80 polio cases reported since July 3.

The U.S. is virtually polio-free now, but the poliovirus is still a threat in some countries and vaccination is needed to protect people everywhere from the disease. According to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, children should get four doses of polio vaccine beginning at age 2 months.

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