New stamp commemorates polio vaccine

By Julie DeBruin

Published: Tue, Sep 27th, 2005

A disease that was all but wiped out across North America decades ago continues to claim victims in other parts of the world.

Polio, a once feared disease, was common throughout the world in the first half of the last century. A vaccine developed half a century ago is reducing the threat, one child at a time, and Canadians played a significant role in mass producing it.

To commemorate its 50th anniversary, Canada Post has launched a new 50-cent stamp.

It features colourful silhouettes of six children jumping and playing, illustrating in a positive way that, as a result of the vaccine, children are free from the fear of polio. A pair of discarded leg braces serves as a reminder of what life was like before the vaccine.

"We didn't want a somber message," says Liz Wong, manager, Stamp Design and Production, Canada Post. "We wanted to focus on the benefits that exist now. It's something to celebrate."

Pat McLeod was at the launch several weeks ago. She contracted the disease shortly before she started school. “It was in the 1930s,” said the Barrie resident. “I don’t remember much about it.”

However, she has had to live with its effects her entire life. The disease weakened the muscles in her left side and she walked with a limp.

Up until about 16 years ago, she was able to live a normal life. She worked, enjoyed bowling and was able to manage quite well. “Then I suddenly started falling down,” she said. She learned she was suffering from post-polio syndrome, a condition that gradually took away her strength.

“It’s a muscle disease,” she said, explaining that the muscles just wear out. It forced her to retire early and walking became increasingly difficult. “I have to walk with a walker now,” said McLeod, who is the chairperson of the Barrie and District Post Polio Chapter.

When people first started experiencing these symptoms, they contacted the March of Dimes, which was formed to help polio sufferers. It seems to have really started about 20 years ago, when 300 people had reported their symptoms.

Today, there are 10,000 names on the list.

Polio (short for "polimyelitis", and also known as "infantile paralysis") is a highly infectious viral disease. It invades the nervous system, and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours. It can strike at any age, but affects mainly young children. Initial symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck and pain in the limbs.

One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis (usually in the legs), and among those paralyzed, 5-10 per cent die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.

Most people infected with the polio virus have no symptoms. After initial infection, the virus is shed intermittently in stools for several weeks. During that time, it can spread rapidly through the community. This could facilitate transmission, especially in countries where sanitation systems are sub-standard.

In the remaining polio-endemic countries, the polio virus is mainly passed through person-to-person contact. The virus can also infect people who have been vaccinated and can be carried by them. The World Health Organization considers a single confirmed case of polio paralysis to be evidence of an epidemic – particularly in countries where very few cases occur.

There is no cure for polio, it can only be prevented through immunization.

Epidemics caused panic every summer during the 1940s and 50s in industrialized countries. At that time, people with polio affecting the respiratory muscles were immobilized inside "iron lungs" – large metal cylinders that operated like a pair of bellows to regulate their breathing and keep them alive. Today, the iron lung has largely been replaced by the positive pressure ventilator.

Until the 1950s, polio crippled thousands of children every year in industrialized countries. Soon after the introduction of effective vaccines, polio was brought under control, and virtually eliminated as a public health problem in industrialized countries.

That can’t be said for developing countries, but an international effort is continuing to work towards global eradication

“The Rotary Club is trying to immunize all children,” said McLeod. She was referring to Rotary International, an organization, which joined with national governments, the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF to launch the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. It is the largest public health initiative the world has ever known.

Rotary International launched a campaign in 1987 to raise $120 million (US) to fight polio, which provided the driving force to begin the polio eradication initiative.

Since 1988, some two billion children around the world have been immunized thanks to the co-operation of more than 200 countries and 20 million volunteers, backed by an international investment of $3 billion (US).

The World Health Assembly passed a resolution in 1995 to eradicate polio by the year 2000.

Rotary International raised $500 million (US) from its membership to contribute to the effort total contribution to polio, and by the time the world is certified polio-free, donations will reach $600 million.

Today, the disease has been eliminated from most of the world, and only seven countries world-wide remain polio-endemic.

Efforts are hampered with war, refusal for religious reasons and the nomadic lifestyle of some African cultures, said McLeod, who doesn’t believe the disease can ever to completely wiped out.

“It’s sad because it really can’t ever be over,” she said. There have even been recent cases show up in Canada because people are coming into the country carrying the disease. There was an outbreak a dozen years ago when it was brought over from the Netherlands by people who refused to be immunized, she said.

However, the numbers are continuing to fall.

In 2003, 784 polio cases were reported worldwide, a significant reduction over 2002, when 1,918 polio cases were reported. The majority were found in Nigeria, India and Pakistan.

It is believed that polio has been around for thousands of years, but was not identified until Dr. Michael Underwood, a British physician, documented the first known clinical description in 1789.

It wasn’t until 1955 that Dr. Jonas Salk developed the first vaccine, and in 1961, Dr. Albert Sabin developed an oral version.

Canadian scientists played an integral part in the development of the vaccine. It was in the University of Toronto laboratories that methods for mass-producing Dr. Salk’s vaccine were devised.

Paul Martin Sr., at one time Canada's minister of health and welfare, had strong personal reasons for supporting this program. He had contracted polio in 1907, and his son, Paul, the current Prime Minister, overcame the disease in 1946.

While Canadians no longer fear polio, it still has victims. The Barrie and District Post Polio Chapter has about 200 members. The group meets six times a year and members can listen to guest speakers.

The next meeting is this Saturday (Oct. 1) at the Barrie Community Health Centre where Marianne Tizzard of the Simcoe County Association for the Physically Disabled will be speaking.

For more information on the group, call 728-4775.