The Polio Epidemic | Iowa PBS Explores

Public swimming pools were shut down. Movie theaters urged patrons to not sit too close together. And children disappeared from neighborhoods. Sound familiar?

The polio pandemic ravaged communities across the country, and Iowa was not spared.

Voice Over: As the weather warmed each year, a growing fear swept the nation in the 1940s and early 50s. Public swimming pools were shut down. Movie theaters urged patrons to not sit too close together. And children disappeared from neighborhoods. But even with all of these precautions, thousands upon thousands of people fell ill with Polio. It was called by many the worst pandemic of the 20th century.

This destructive disease was no stranger to Iowa. It ravaged communities, and as one newspaper article stated, “Polio is no respecter of age or position.”

Voice Over: As early as 1910, over 150 cases of polio were recorded in Iowa communities. But in 1940 the number skyrocketed. Between 1948 and 1950 the state averaged 1,300 cases. And in 1952, the disease reached a peak, especially in northwest Iowa.

Tom Morrain: Sioux City for some reason was a hot spot not only for Iowa, but for the entire nation. Iowa had 3500 cases in 1952, a quarter of those cases were in Sioux City. It was so bad that Bob Hope the comedian came to Sioux City to do a fundraiser. Just to raise money for polio victims and to support the efforts to fight it.

Voice Over: For 99 percent of people infected with polio, the symptoms were very similar to flu: fever, aches, and fatigue. For a very small few, however, the disease attacked the spinal cord and respiratory system which could cause paralysis, especially for Children who were the most at risk.

Tom Morrain: One of the heart wrenching pictures of polio that had been painted for us at Blank Hospital in Des Moines. The second floor was quarantined for children’s polio victims. Parents would drive up and lean their ladders to the side of the hospital and climb up and read books through the sealed windows so that their children could see them and could have some contact with their children. The quarantine had a very painful side effect when it cut off parents and children.

Voice Over: Finally in 1954, 13,000 children in Woodbury, Linn, and Scott counties, were a part of the clinical trials for the new Salk Vaccine. By 1955 it was proven to be effective against polio, and nationwide vaccinations began.

Tom Morrain: Mother was standing over the television and she was crying. And mom said, they have developed a vaccine against polio. It was such a national celebration and a relief that you no longer had to worry about your children.

Voice Over: After the introduction to the salk vaccine, cases continued to pop up around the country, but nothing came close to what it was like in the 1940s and 50s. It instilled fear. It changed our culture. Combatting it was a nationwide effort.

Tom Morrain: When you’re looking back on a disease, you always see the beginning and the end of a pandemic. And so you assume the people living through that knew that they would come to a successful conclusion because we know how the story came out in the end. When you’re living through one like we do, and we don’t know the ending, we wonder where this is going, how is this ever going to come out. If history is any teacher, it says you live through it, you do what you have to day by day. You take the best advice you can…not knowing the conclusion is the tough part. Living with the unknown is the tough part. But our ancestors lived with tough stuff, our ancestors got through tough stuff and I think we’ll get through tough stuff.