Rotary Club of Northbrook Displays Polio Iron Lung on September 21st at Shermerfest!
he Rotary Club of Northbrook will portray polio’s terrible effects and global devastation by displaying a real iron lung, used widely in America in the 1940s and 1950s to keep many victims alive. It will be open to the public all day at Shermerfest. Neighbors are encouraged to view it, read background and ask questions.
Polio was the most widely feared disease in America and other nations in the mid-twentieth century. Hundreds of thousands of children were killed or crippled across 125 nations every year and American parents panicked over ways to protect their youngsters. Relief only came with invention of the Salk and Sabin vaccines, where near-universal immunization eventually slashed the number of victims and helped eradicate the disease from the Americas in 1994.
Similar efforts worldwide have cut the number of wild polio virus cases to less than 100 in 2024, and only in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
This worldwide public health campaign was developed by Rotary International, whose members brought vaccines to many nations and personally contributed over $2.7 billion over the decades. Rotary has since been joined by the World Health Organization; UNICEF; the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Together, and with cooperation from the countries of the world, they mobilized global support, immunized three billion children and brought polio to the brink of eradication. Massive efforts today are hoping to totally end the polio scourge.
The Rotary Club of Northbrook recognizes that polio has not been completely wiped out and transmission can still happen via a disease carrier flying here from an affected region. Rotarians wanted to portray the terrible history, vast successes since the 1950s and how individuals today can support and even contribute to total global polio eradication.
Visitors to the Polio Iron Lung exhibit in Northbrook are very welcome.
