Polio outbreak and vaccination

Improved hygiene practices and cleaner water supplies meant that most of the major bacterial diseases to have affected New Zealand had been eliminated by the 1920s. However, an outbreak of Poliomyelitis in the middle of the 20th century was to strike fear into the hearts of the populace. Most common in children and teens, this was an acute viral disease affecting the spinal cord and nervous system. Symptoms included fever, headache, malaise, pain and stiffness in back and neck, and partial or complete paralysis of limbs or the entire body with fatality reaching as high as 10% at times. Until a successful vaccine was developed in the 1950s, there was no effective treatment. Little wonder that parents were terrified for their children during this period. It wasn't until after 1961 when a mass vaccination with the Salk vaccine was implemented that the disease was finally brought under control. By then, many young lives had been lost to the disease, and many children and young people had been inflicted with permanent disability.