IT was an unusual sight, to put it mildly — a boy with one leg encased in a metal frame jointed at the knee and anchored through his shoe heel and round his thigh. That leg was a withered object about half the thickness of the other limb. But the boy never appeared to mind. He ran around with the rest of us on the playground, seemingly unhindered by his handicap. I was a pupil at the Windward Road Elementary School in the late 1940s, and it was my first exposure to poliomyelitis, then known as infantile paralysis.

A few years later I was at Kingston College, and the public got its first real understanding of the disease. The polio outbreak of 1954 affected almost 1,200 people, most of whom were children. Ninety-four people died, and many of the survivors lost the use of their limbs. The calamity brought the first “iron lung” to Jamaica. The device saved many lives because one of the possible effects of polio is paralysis of the chest muscles, making it impossible for a person to breathe unassisted. The “iron lung” is really a rigid tube surrounding the patient’s body which, by rhythmically applying and releasing a partial vacuum to the patient’s body, allows breathing to occur.

To house the worst cases of paralysis, the Government set up the Polio Rehabilitation Centre in an old World War II barracks at Mona. The centre cared for the most disabled people and also produced some interesting and worthwhile ‘side effects’ — teaching patients various crafts, the sale of which helped maintain the centre.

At around that time an American scientist, Dr Jonas Salk, developed a vaccine to counteract the virus which caused the disease, and we obtained a supply in the years after the outbreak. The Government vaccinated thousands of children and some adults. Another American researcher, Dr Albert Sabin, produced a more effective vaccine which could be taken by mouth instead of having to be injected. I recall doing a story as a young JBC radio reporter at a clinic run by the public health service at which hundreds of children were lined up to receive their doses.

There was another outbreak in 1982, concentrated in Montego Bay, but the aggressive immunisation work by the health authorities took effect, and Jamaica was declared polio-free in 1994 along with other countries in the region.

Many refused to let paralysis limit them

There were two people I knew who had suffered from polio. One was “Foggy” Burrowes, a teacher at KC who had been a well-known athlete accustomed to pushing boundaries. After beating the disease, this indomitable man took on the task of regaining the use of his withered legs. “Foggy” came back to school using two crutches to get around, then graduated to two canes and eventually one, which he carried mostly for effect and to keep errant boys in line by using it as a hook when they failed to pay attention in class. He also acquired a Hillman Minx car custom-fitted with handles to manipulate the accelerator, clutch and brake pedals — automatic transmissions were still rare.

The other survivor I knew well was my colleague, the late Terry Smith, who contracted polio as a tot. One leg was smaller than the other, but he was able to walk without either a brace or cane. He clumped around the newsroom and places like the Ministry of Labour — his beat for several years — with a distinctive rocking gait, and whenever anyone challenged his bona fides over a glass or two, Smith would proclaim: “I’m the only bruk-foot revolutionary in this country!”

There are many famous people who survived the disease and distinguished themselves. A celebrated American track star, the late Wilma Rudolph, contracted polio at the age of four and lost the use of her left leg. But five years of exercise and massage gave her back the use of the leg, and by the time she was a teenager she was beating the boys she knew in races. At 16 she won a gold medal at the 1956 summer Olympics and three at the 1960 games.

The golf pro, Jack Nicklaus, caught polio at 13 but recovered without paralysis. He, however, believes he has what they call post-polio syndrome, which makes his joints stiff and sore. His sister caught the disease from him and couldn’t walk for a whole year. The famous Israeli-American violinist, Itzhak Perlman, contracted polio at four. He learned to walk with crutches and uses an electric scooter to move around easily. To ease the load on his legs, he performs sitting down.

A long and difficult battle

Humankind’s battle against disease is a long and arduous one, but we are all beneficiaries of the progress made by numerous research scientists, field testers and bedside practitioners. While we have so far eliminated only one human disease — smallpox — we have been able to tame others which once were the bane of human existence. Cholera, dysentery, leprosy, plague, measles, chicken pox, and mumps no longer take their toll, although if we let our guard down they will try to re-establish a stand somewhere in the world. Most of our triumphs are not the result of magic elixirs, but rather of sheer knowledge. Because we know what causes diseases and how they spread, we avoid them by practising simple hygiene.

The efforts go on. More than 350,000 children were paralysed by polio as recently as 1988, when the disease was endemic in 125 countries. Last year the world saw its largest reduction in a decade, from 650 cases in 2011 to 223. So far this year, only 19 cases have been reported, and polio is endemic in only three countries — Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

The final push to make the disease history is the focus of a meeting held in Abu Dhabi over the past two days. The Global Vaccine Summit encompassed all virus-caused illnesses. Health groups at the summit announced that they could eliminate polio within five years with a US$5.5-billion plan of vaccination and monitoring. Some $4 billion has already been committed, and software magnate, Bill Gates, is on board. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has chipped in $1.8 billion to the fund. Gates, who was born the year the first vaccine was developed, has supported the Global Polio Eradication Initiative every year since creating his foundation in 1988.

In a message to the summit, the UN Secretary-General, Ban-Ki Moon, said: “Immunisation is one of the best and most cost-effective ways to prevent these diseases and safeguard young lives.” But there is still work to be done. While four out of five children are immunised, “Now it is time to reach that fifth child wherever he or she may be. We must break down all barriers that stand in our way.” And barriers do remain.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are Islamic countries, while Nigeria has a large Muslim population. It continues to hang on to old fears that the vaccine is part of a western conspiracy to sterilise people, while in the first two countries, Islamist militants have actually used force to prevent medical teams from vaccinating children.

But anything worth doing is worth the effort. On with the fight!