Polio was a terrifying annual visitor to the Pacific Northwest in the early to mid-20th century. While most cases were mild, others could result in temporary (or permanent) paralysis or even death. Tacoma and Pierce County joined the national fight to prevent, treat, and eventually defeat polio.
Polio, A Modern Disease for Tacoma?
An ancient disease, poliomyelitis (“polio”), also known as infantile paralysis, became widespread and severe only in the early 20th century. Passed by fecal-oral transmission, the Industrial Revolution and (ironically) improved hygiene left people vulnerable. The highly contagious disease begins with headaches, fever, nausea, and tiredness. Severe cases develop temporary (or permanent) paralysis. In the deadliest cases, patients become unable to breathe on their own. Children, pregnant women, and those of older age are most at risk from the disease, but anyone can get it.
Polio was one of the most feared diseases of its time. Over a single day, a child could go from healthy to being unable to breathe.
The first cases of polio in Tacoma were isolated. In 1916, Dr. E. A. Rich, head of the Tacoma Health Department, had little advice to give the public except to water down dirt streets to prevent dust, kill flies and not have children kiss each other.
By the 1920s, polio became a regular annual visitor to the Pacific Northwest, with epidemics typically in the late summer and early fall. Besides quarantining the ill, closing schools, swimming pools and theaters, there was little anyone could do.
March of Dimes in Pierce County
But that did not discourage people from banding together to help prevent polio and support survivors. In the 1930s, there emerged a new organization dedicated to fighting the disease, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, or March of Dimes. Founded in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the nation’s most famous polio survivor, it was dedicated to the prevention and treatment of the disease.
There were chapters of the group throughout Pierce County. Volunteers from all walks of life dedicated countless hours raising donations. Students in “Teens Against Polio” held peanut sales. Granges sold “Pies for Polio.”
The money went to pay for research and medical costs. In Pierce County, polio patients never saw a bill for hospital care or physical therapy, which could run into the thousands per case.
A New Fight in Tacoma
Through the efforts of the March of Dimes and other organizations, Pierce County Hospital became a regional hub for polio patient care, handling the most severe cases as well as follow-up physical therapy. It was also the only hospital in the city to have ventilators. The “Iron Lung” was a tube that used negative pressure to help paralyzed patients breathe.
But this life-saving equipment was expensive. The Elks Club purchased the county’s first Iron Lung in 1938, and three unions banded together to buy another in 1940. The county hospital eventually had about ten. Patients could remain in an Iron Lung for months or even permanently.
Staff and volunteers did their best to keep up the spirits of their patients, from celebrating birthdays to giving presents. In 1951, the Tacoma Downtown Lions Club and Carpenters Union No.470 bought TV sets for the polio ward. Iron Lung patients could now watch baseball games via mirrors.
However, the greatest support for fighting polio came from survivors and their families. They led fundraising campaigns, using their stories to raise awareness. Jack Pyle, for example, wrote a series of articles about his illness for the Tacoma News Tribune in 1949.
In an era when children with disabilities were expected to stay home instead of going to school, students and their families advocated for accessible education. In 1947 the School for Crippled Children opened in Salishan. This allowed students with disabilities, many of them polio survivors, to have a quality education in addition to physical and occupational therapy.
Operation Polio
Besides researching better treatment, the March of Dimes also sponsored vaccine research, seeking to prevent the disease. In 1954, two million children across the country were volunteered by their parents to test Dr. Jonas Salk’s new vaccine. Evaluating the results after the annual polio season, the vaccine was deemed safe and effective.
The public greeted the news as nothing short of a miracle. The Pierce County Health Department began plans for distribution immediately after the vaccine’s April 1955 federal approval. Dubbing the drive as “Operation Polio,” inoculations began for Tacoma’s 13,000 first and second-graders on Monday, May 16.
About 95 percent of Tacoma parents gave permission for their children to be vaccinated. Clinics were also held in schools across Pierce County. Shots were free.
Making Polio History
Follow-up doses were administered later. In the next few years, other children and adults became eligible for vaccination. Polio cases began to quickly dwindle.
Now a routine childhood immunization, there has not been a case of wild-caught polio in the United States since 1979. There are occasional cases contracted through international travel.
March of Dimes continues its good work and is now dedicated to maternal and infant health.
The fear of those years may feel like a distant memory. But many polio survivors have developed post-polio syndrome, which causes gradual muscle weakness and atrophy. And polio remains a threat across the globe. Many organizations, especially the Rotary Club, continue efforts to make polio history everywhere, just like it is in Pierce County. Bringing the world closer to the day that polio survivor Jack Pyle (who walked with a limp the rest of his life) wished for in 1948, where the disease would be “another dodo” and “our children and their children might walk in safety.”
