epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

wasn't it common then for individual residence to get quarantined for illnesses like the mumps, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, etc. I think the polio scares were more from the 1930s/1940s.


Even in the late 1940s, we got hit with a house quarantine for whooping cough.

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

1) When was the polio epidemic at its worst in the United States? "Polio was at its height in the early 1950s," says Oshinsky, "just as the Salk vaccine was tested and found to be 'safe, effective and potent.' "

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

I remember the polio epidemic very well from the '50, I still have the scar.

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

the story I heard in years past, was that with the growth of life in suburbia, had the result of children not intermingling as much as in previous times and therefore lost some acquired immunity to polio. I don't know if that is accurate or not.

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

I remember a couple of kids at primary school who had to wear calipers because they had polio. When I tell of it to even my own kids, let alone grandkids, their eyes glaze over and it is clear they have no comprehension of a contagious disease. I guess they are leaning now!

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

They haven't been on a cruise ship then.

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

In Model A days they managed to crash the stock market without the help of a pandemic.

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

The unusual thing about polio was that the older you were when you got it, the more likely it was to result in paralysis and disability. What happened between 1900 and 1950 is that overall hygiene and sanitation improved dramatically, which meant that kids were not getting exposed to polio either in the womb, via maternal antibodies, or as infants, and they also weren't getting exposed to similar viruses in the environment that would grant some cross-immunity. This is what led to the massive epidemics of the '40s and '50s, because kids were getting fresh exposure to polio at the age of 3 and upward, leading to large incidence of permanent disability.

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

It seems that in 1928-29 the flu was half as bad as in 1918 in the USA.

In Oz here 1918-19:
"Commonwealth Serum Laboratories was established during the First World War to alleviate Australia’s dependence on imported vaccines. In 1918 it developed its first, experimental vaccine in anticipation of pneumonic influenza reaching mainland Australia.Researchers did not know what caused influenza, but produced a vaccine that addressed the more serious secondary bacterial infections that were likely to cause death.
Between 15 October 1918 and 15 March 1919, CSL produced three million free doses for Australian troops and civilians. It later evaluated the vaccines to be partially effective in preventing death in inoculated individuals."
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-mome...uenza-pandemic

How history repeats itself. Despite CSL now being our biggest company we are finding, to our detriment, a dependence on imported drugs.

We heard today how the army is planning to setup on a local football field, a quarantine station just like the photo in the article. 100 years on the same thing.

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

I can remember when, before they had vaccines for these, if the neighbor's kid came down with measles or chicken pox, and if it was a convenient time (like during summer vacation) parents would send their kids over to play with the infected child so that they'd catch the disease, and get it out of the way before school started.

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

Yeah Will I remember the same thing here. Also, when I was about 5-6, my Mom was all worried because I had played with a kid who got polio.. I was too young to know what all the fuss was about and I didn't understand until years later.

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

My 19 year old great uncle died of the flu in 1918. When our soldiers went over seas to fight the great war they brought the flu with them. More people died of the flu in Europe than we killed in action!

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

If we multiply the number who died in Spanish Flu epidemic by the number of times the world's population has increased since, there would be about 200 million dead. Imagine the hysteria perpetuated by a sensation seeking media then!

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

Had the more common chicken pox and measles which every kid seemed to get. Then got scarlet fever in 1946 and was "quarantined" and kept in a dark room. I was told that it was to protect my eyes. Not sure how the quarantine worked as my Dad went out to work everyday but nobody was allowed to visit. Polio was common especially in late summer when the water in the river got low and the Health Dept would close the beaches. One friend got polio but survived ok with a bit of damage to one leg

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

This is the old Quarantine Station on Sydney Harbour here, now an upmarket hotel.
https://www.qstation.com.au/

You could do worse than be thrown in here for a few weeks ...

"The practice of quarantine began during the 14th century in an effort to protect coastal cities from plague epidemics. Ships arriving in Venice from infected ports were required to sit at anchor for 40 days before offloading on shore. This practice, called quarantine, was derived from the Italian words quaranta giorni which means “forty days”. From the 1830s until 1984, migrant ships arriving in Sydney with suspected contagious disease stopped inside North head and offloaded passengers and crew into quarantine to protect local residents."

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

ericr,

Another factor was that the size of the towns was smaller in the ‘50’s. My home town of Redlands was 14,000 people, not unlike the other towns in inland Southern California. There were more orange trees than people and only about 400 kids in our High School. We never interacted with more than a few other kids mostly in our neighborhoods.

In addition, most people worked in and around their town with almost no commuting out side of a 30 mile radius. Plus there were no malls or restaurants, just small local stores and a couple of small chain stores like J.C. Penny and Woolworth. Our town wasn’t big enough for Sears or Montgomery Ward.

David Serrano

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

I also was Quarantined for Whooping cough in the early 50's

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

I had first hand experience with polio. In the early 1950's I was in college at the time. The Salk vaccine just came out. You could take it with a sugar cube. I took it. A couple of weeks later, I was doing pushups in PE and I could not get my butt off the floor. Later I tried to run up a stairs and fell flat on my face. All my muscles were gone. But I could still walk so I stayed in school. I lost 40 lbs or so. Had to stop PE. I was lucky in that within a few months I was able to start to gain back my muscles. But it took at least a year to gain back all of them.
The Doctor I went to just said it was a virus. Did not blame the vaccine-he may have been correct but it did give me an idea of what polio was all about.

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

I remember they gave those sugar cubes out to everyone in junior high or high school, but I was absent that day. A year or so later they gave the vaccine to everyone at school via an injection. By coincidence, I was absent that day as well.

David Serrano

Re: epidemics in the Model "A" era
 

Every town had a Ben Franklin's, 5 and dime, I also remember taking the sugar cubes, and then later came the shots that marked you for life, I'm sure most of the older guys on here have the scar on their upper arm shoulder area.
My wife has her's on the shoulder blade area, guess that was so the girls could hide the scar better...boy's, hell, we love scars.
I also remember going to chicken pox/measles parties...don't you?