Minutes of Meeting, January 20, 2016
Announcements:
Birthdays: Leo Tobi, January 25th
Rotary Ski Day, Friday, January 29th at Osler Ski Club, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Kitchener Conestoga
50/50 – we finally had a winner for our version of Powerball! Jim Evan took home a whopping $955.00
Guest Speaker, Shirley Hartung, author (of many books). Shirley brought some interesting books and workbooks to the meeting, and they are available for sale. Shirley can be reached at
www.authorsmhartung.com or 519-578-4526.
Shirley presented many interesting ‘facts’ and ‘exceptions’ about polio in the 1950’s, such as
- They thought that only one person in a family could get polio
- Boys were more susceptible than girls
- It could come from flies so they sent kids out with fly swatters to kill flies
- Salted peanuts could prevent polio
US President Theodore Roosevelt was hit hard by polio, but it also reminded others that it could strike anyone.
Some who contracted polio were unable to breathe so a device called an iron lung was invented. The patient was put inside the unit except for their head. The device forced the lungs to expand and contact. When strong enough, the patient was taken out and put on a ‘rocker bed’ for further rehabilitation. The patient could only speak when exhaling.
An Australian, Sister Kinney, observed polio patients and felt that the prescribed course of treatment could be improved. She went to the US to try to convince authorities. She felt that patients should be moved, not left immobile. Her course of treatment included ‘hot packs’ whereby woolen, hot blankets were wrapped around the affected area. When the limb cooled it would work better.
Sister Kinney also invented to board game “Candyland” to engage children recovering from polio.
Dr. Saulk and his team developed a vaccine for polio but it was not yet proven safe for humans, and they didn’t have much of it. They worked with Connaught Labs in Toronto where, using medium 199 they developed the “Toronto method”. On April 12, 1955 the vaccine was declared safe and they allowed outside pharmaceutical companies to make the vaccine. Unfortunately, 13 days later was the “Cutter Incident” where they found out that one of the suppliers had not followed the procedure properly and live virus, not dead virus, was created and administered, with grave results.
Despite this, Canadian Health Minister, Paul Martin Sr. continued to allow the vaccine and, in time, other countries followed. This led the way for the beginning of the end of the transmission of the polio virus.
Dr. Saulk and his team were recognized as having made the greatest achievement of the 1950’s.
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