How the polio epidemic revolutionized modern medicine – CBC

A new book explores how the spread of this devastating disease led to the creation of the ventilator

May 22, 2023

The year was 1949 and polio was raging across the United States.

By 1952, the epidemic had spread around the world, and Copenhagen, Denmark, was feeling the toll as autumn began. More than 3,000 people were admitted to hospital, and patients were wheezing and gasping for breath. Some were paralyzed.

The doctors and nurses there could do very little to help.

“For the unlucky few, and it was usually less than about five per cent of those who got the disease, they would develop paralysis — the virus would actually go to the nerves of the spinal cord and cause weakness of limbs,” Dr. Hannah Wunsch told The Current host Matt Galloway.

“If you were really unlucky, [you had] a weakness of the muscles of respiration, and if you were truly unlucky, the muscles that control things like swallowing, which was called bulbar polio.”

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/polio-modern-medicine-book-1.6851326