Eastern states polio epidemic of 1916
The Eastern States-polio epidemic of 1916 was one of the first major polio - epidemics in the United States. It lasted from around June to October 1916 and claimed more than 6,000 lives, including mostly small children, in its course.
Polio was an endemic disease until around the middle of the 19th century . However, epidemic-like outbreaks increased in the course of the 19th century. The Otter Valley polio epidemic in 1894 was the first polio epidemic scientifically described for the United States. Numerous other small epidemics followed.
In June 1916, multiple polio cases were diagnosed for the first time in a part of Brooklyn that was largely populated by immigrants . The first deaths were reported a few days later. The press blamed immigrants in particular for the disease outbreak. The New York Times noted that as of May 15, 1916, no fewer than 90 people from Italy, including no fewer than 24 children under the age of 10, had settled in Brooklyn. The health authorities responded with drastic measures. “Contaminated buildings” have been flagged, a number of theaters have been closed and events have been canceled. However, the number of cases rose steadily, so from the beginning of July all children who were supposed to leave New York were required to carry a certificate confirming that they were free from polio disease. A number of cities in the New York area had their access roads checked in order to deny all travelers. These measures also proved ineffective. In August, there were confirmed polio outbreaks in New Jersey , Connecticut , Pennsylvania, and upstate New York . The epidemic lasted until October. As a result, 6,000 people died. More than 8,900 cases of illness had been reported for the city of New York alone, of which more than 2,400 died. 80 percent of those who died were children under five.
When analyzing the cases of illness, several abnormalities were found that differed from other infectious diseases. Diseases such as cholera and typhoid were mostly found in neighborhoods that suffered from poor sanitary conditions. The polio epidemic of 1916 initially occurred in such a neighborhood. The number of infections was ultimately higher in other, affluent neighborhoods than in these parts of the city. This applied to the New York borough of Staten Island , which had the lowest population density and the best sanitary conditions of all New York boroughs , as well as to exclusive residential areas in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
At the time of the polio epidemic of 1916, the pathways of infection were poorly understood. The virus is transmitted under poor hygienic conditions through excrement-soiled hands or objects and is taken up with the digestive tract (fecal-oral smear infection or contact infection ). However, there is also transmission through droplet infection . In more than 95 percent of the cases, the infection is asymptomatic (without any signs of illness), so that the course of the disease cannot be spoken of. Instead it comes - unnoticed by the infected - to the formation of antibodies and thus to a so-called silent celebration . As a paradoxical consequence of the improved hygienic way of life and the consequent decline in (dirt) autoimmunization, children and adolescents in particular in wealthy neighborhoods did not have adequate immunization against polio. However, this connection was only understood over the next few decades.
supporting documents
Individual evidence
- ↑ Oshinsky, p. 20
- ↑ Oshinsky, p. 21
- ↑ Oshinsky, p. 22
- ↑ German Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases V. (DGPI) (Ed.): Handbook infections in children and adolescents. 4th edition Futuramed, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-923599-90-0
literature
- David M. Oshinsky: Polio: An American Story . Oxford University Press, USA, 2005, ISBN 0-19-530714-3 .