The Polio Years in Texas: Battling a Terrifying Unknown (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Polio Years in Texas: Battling a Terrifying Unknown Keith Volanto The Polio Years in Texas: Battling a Terrifying Unknown. By Heather Green Wooten. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2009. Pp. 264. Illustrations, map, tables, figures, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 9781603441407, $45.00 cloth; ISBN 9781603441650, $19.95 paper.) This exceptional book immediately grabs your attention with a well-chosen cover photograph of a young girl in an iron lung helplessly gazing at the camera, providing a stark reminder of the terrible effect that polio could have on its victims. Wooten utilizes previous national-level surveys of polio, especially David Oshinsky's recent Pulitzer Prize-winning Polio: An American Story (Oxford University Press, 2005), to provide the framework for the story, while artfully connecting the Texas experience within the national drama. The author agrees with the theory that modern polio epidemics were actually a consequence of improved sanitation and hygienic practices (preventing infants from being exposed while still protected by maternal antibodies). She also surmises that the disease spread to Texas as a consequence of repeated waves of migration into the Lone Star State, first with the oil boom, and later with the coming of the World War II. Texans responded to the initial polio epidemics with a mixture of panic and compassion for victims. Health officials employed traditional methods to curb the outbreaks, calling for a limit on nonessential public gatherings. The medical community sought to provide basic relief, from placement in iron lungs for those with difficulty breathing to multiple rudimentary aids for convalescent patients, including casting and splinting of limbs, the application of hot packs, and crude orthopedic surgeries. Meanwhile, numerous philanthropic organizations began to raise funds to provide care for polio patients, culminating in the state's first rehabilitation hospital, the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children. [End Page 109] Wooten devotes an entire chapter to the interaction between Franklin Roosevelt (the nation's most famous polio survivor) and Texas, not only by noting the aid provided by New Deal programs, but also describing the state's involvement in the March of Dimes campaigns. Subsequent chapters describe Texas efforts to endure and overcome numerous postwar epidemics. Hospitals and rehabilitation centers became overwhelmed by the number of cases (up to 4,000 in 1952), as many health care providers became skittish about maintaining close contact with victims out of fear that they might contract the disease or pass it along to friends and loved ones. Wooten points out that while measles, tuberculosis, diphtheria, and accidents claimed far more lives, polio grabbed the public's attention and instilled tremendous fear because so many unknown factors were involved: how it could be prevented, why the disease seemed to target children, and why some suffered only minor temporary symptoms while others were crippled or killed. Throughout the outbreaks, the medical community made important advances in treatment and rehabilitation. Specialized treatment facilities, such as the innovative Southwestern Poliomyelitis Respiratory Center in Houston, became the forerunners of modern intensive care units by providing central management under a team of specialists in residence. Wooten also devotes attention to the role of Texans in finding a cure, from the important work of Ardroozny Packchanian, a University of Texas Medical Branch professor of bacteriology who discovered that the virus could be transmitted to rodents (an important research advance) to the role of thousands of average Texans who participated in mass field trials to test gamma gobulin serum (a short-term preventative) and the Salk vaccine. The author concludes with a chapter devoted to the short- and long-term impact of the disease on polio survivors based on informative oral interviews. The Polio Years in Texas is a significant contribution to Texas medical historiography, joining a growing list of works examining various aspects of health and medicine in the twentieth century. Anyone interested in learning more about polio, from the victims' stories to the disease's contribution to the development of modern medicine, will benefit from this stellar work. Keith Volanto Collin College Copyright © 2010 The Texas State Historical Association