Polio

Polio (read more at KidsHealth) is caused by a virus. In about 95% of cases, actually produces no symptoms at all. What people are most used to hearing about is the severe form called **paralytic polio** (this occurs in only 0.1%-2% of cases). In this type, the virus may affect the nerves controlling the muscles in the limbs and the muscles necessary for breathing. Currently, only three countries still report cases of polio - Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan.


 * In the Western Hemisphere, Polio is no longer a threat due to the vaccines we can get (especially here, in the US). Although organizations continue to try and eradicate (get rid of) polio around the world.** Read the most current polio news at **@http://www.polioeradication.org/**.

You can learn more about the iron lung by reading this interactive online exhibit on the iron lung or watching the videos below. PS - this site is perhaps one of the most interesting resourcesfor learning more about polio. Or, you can [|read this post and watch footage from a 1950s March of Dimes promo video] of actress Helen Hayes visiting Rancho Los Amigos, a polio ward in California. If you’re interested in learning more about polio, you can revisit the polio page on the wiki or read the [|CDC page on polio in the United States].

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Some questions kids have asked:
 * How does someone go to the bathroom in an iron lung? This blogger asked and found out.

You can meet one polio victim still in an iron lung 60 years later in the video, __**Martha in Lattimore**__ (Documentary - 2009) - see video embedded below, or visit the original video site.

"**Synopsis:** The first thing you notice when meeting Martha Mason is the bright yellow iron lung that encases her body and helps her breathe, just as it has since 1948 when she contracted polio at the age of 11. She has lived in this life-saving machine longer than anyone else in the world. At first, the image and sound of the iron lung are shocking. Soon after talking with Martha, however, the massive, metal cylinder becomes inconsequential because it is so greatly exceeded by her spirit. Her personal story has long inspired her friends and neighbors, but Martha has been a private person for most of her life. This film tells Martha’s story in the context of Lattimore, the little town and relationships there that have nurtured her."

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Here is an image of a polio ward (1953) //Image PD by the Food and Drug Administration//

It’s important to note that not all people afflicted with polio need to go into an iron lung. Like most diseases, a person’s symptoms can range from mild to severe. Most polio victims (over 99%) never needed to use an iron lung. Others went in for just days or weeks, or maybe just a few hours a day when they needed to. The iron lung is considered negative pressure ventilation. Nowadays, people who need mechanical assistance in order to breathe are usually going to use positive pressure ventilation, like the ventilators we are used to seeing today or, in rare cases, they might still use a cuirass ventilator ([|video clip]) which looks a lot like a turtle shell. (People can use [|a modern cuirass ventilator] for other reasons besides polio - see [|list]. ) One long-term polio survivor, [|John Prestwich], was able to move from an iron lung to one of the (older-style) cuirass ventilators, although other survivors, like [|Martha Mason], needed to stay in an iron lung for the rest of her life (over 60 years!).

You can read John Prestwick's (another polio survivor from the 1950s) story in this CNN news article or on his personal website. (He passed away in 2006.)