Polio Epidemics and Preventive Measures, Sweden 1880S-1940S

Asclepio. Revista de Historia de la Medicina y de la Ciencia, 2009, vol. LXI, nº 1, enero-junio, págs. 23-38, ISSN: 0210-4466 ‘DO NOT EAT THOSE APPLES; THEY’VE BEEN ON THE GROUND!’: POLIO EPIDEMICS AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES, SWEDEN 1880S-1940S Per Axelsson Umeå University ABSTRACT This article will address how Swedish scientists, physicians and public health officers tried to combat the polio epidemics in the pre-vaccine era. It shows that once polio was considered as an epidemic disease the preventive measures used were based on the hindrance of other infectious diseases. It also illustrates how epidemiological and laboratory studies to some degree affected the thoughts of how polio should be prevented, and that Swedish ideas and experiences differed from those put forward in the USA. KEY WORDS: Polio epidemics. Sweden 20th century. Preventive measures. «NO OS COMÁIS ESAS MANZANAS; ¡HAN ESTADO EN EL SUELO!»: LA EPIDEMIA DE POLIO Y LAS MEDIDAS PREVENTIVAS EN SUECIA, DESDE LA DÉCADA DE 1880 HASTA LA DÉCADA DE 1940 RESUMEN Este artículo trata sobre cómo los científicos, médicos y funcionarios de la sanidad pública de Suecia intentaron combatir la epidemia de la polio en la era anterior a la vacuna y expone que en cuanto la polio fue considerada como una epidemia, las medidas preventivas que se aplicaron se basaban en las de otras enfermedades contagiosas. También ilustra en qué medida los estudios epidemiológicos y los análisis de laboratorio influyeron en la manera de prevenir la polio y también demuestra que las opiniones y experiencias en Suecia eran diferentes a las de los Estados Unidos. PALABRAS CLAVE: Epidemia de polio. Suecia del siglo XX. Medidas preventivas. The late summers and early autumns of the first half of the twentieth century was a time when piles of leaves and windfalls caused fear among Swe- dish parents that built up into loud words of warning; Kids! Do not kick in the 23 PER AXELSSON leaves! Do not eat those apples; they’ve been on the ground!1 The reason for these alerts was that leaves and windfalls was linked to causing polio (or as it was labelled at the time; infantile paralysis) and children were the prime tar- get for contracting the disease. That a polio infection could cause high fever, paralysis and sometimes even death was obvious to most people, but how to avoid being infected by the disease was long wrapped in obscurity. Before the introduction of the polio vaccine in the mid 1950s medical scientists and physicians had a difficult time understanding how the virus was transmitted, and consequently there was no clear-cut prevention to polio. Hence, the epidemics constituted a demanding challenge to medical science and public health insti- tutions during the first five decades of the twentieth century. This article will address how Swedish scientists, physicians and public health officers tried to combat the polio epidemics in the pre-vaccine era. The sources used for this study include contemporary journals of medical science, documents from the Royal Medical Board (Kungl. Medicinalstyrelsen), and different pamphlets concerning polio. In order to be able to understand the effect of polio epidemics in Sweden the first part of the article is devoted to describing the historical epidemiology of polio and relies heavily on the de- mographic records gathered by Statistiska Centralbyrån (Statistics Sweden) and the Royal Medical Board. POLIO FROM ENDEMIC TO EPIDEMIC Polio will forever be associated with one of the greatest successes in medical science —the polio vaccine. The first vaccine, the IPV, was developed by Jonas Salk and introduced in 1955. At the beginning of the 1960s the OPV vaccine was presented by Albert Sabin. Both these vaccines have been widely used and have helped in the efforts to eradicate polio from the world. Nevert- heless, the history of polio reveals that the route to the vaccines was not a ———— 1 POLIOMINNEN, KU 13538, 13732, 13741, 13739, 13746, 13758, 13759, 13613, 13614, 13610, 13607, 13767, 13771, 13776, 13787, 13790, 13788, 13799, 13884, 13887, 13891, 13993, 13994, 13995, 14002, 14003, 14004, 14008. Archive of Nordiska Museet. In 1993 the Nordiska Museet together with The Swedish Association of Survivors of Traffic Accidents and Polio (RTP) asked Swedish polio survivors to send in letters to the museum, describing how polio came to affect themselves, their family and friends, and how it changed their lives. A total of 173 letters arrived at Nordiska Museet. The collection was named Po- liominnen, and every letter has its own number. 24 Asclepio, 2009, vol. LXI, nº 1, enero-junio, 23-38, ISSN: 0210-4466 ‘DO NOT EAT THOSE APPLES; THEY’VE BEEN ON THE GROUND!’: POLIO EPIDEMICS ... straightforward path. When the first polio epidemics started to appear in Sweden at the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, epidemic diseases like smallpox, TB and measles had started to decline due to improved hygiene and sanitation, legislation, and vaccination. Polio epidemics, on the other hand, turned into an increasing problem. Polio transformed from an endemic, fairly unknown disease, to a fearful epidemic. Why? It is argued that polio has accompanied humankind throughout history. Be- fore the major improvements in hygiene and sanitary measures of the twentieth century, almost all children were exposed to the poliovirus during infancy. But owing to protection from maternal antibodies, infantile paralysis was rare even though polio was endemic. Thus, children acquired immunity against the disease through exposure at an early age. However, due to the major hygienic and sanitary improvements of the late nineteenth century, the transmission of the poliovirus was reduced. Hence, children were not exposed to the virus and did not gain immunity during infancy; these children remai- ned susceptible to the poliovirus later in life. When a sufficiently large pool of older, unprotected individuals existed, epidemics could appear. Because improvements in hygiene and sanitation first took place in western countries polio is considered a disease caused by civilization.2 POLIO EPIDEMICS IN SWEDEN The USA is today often considered as the country most severely hit and affected by epidemics of polio.3 There is no doubt that the USA was terribly affected by polio —the New York epidemic in 1916 struck 27.000 people— but there are also other circumstances that contribute to shaping polio epidemics as an American experience. Besides the numerous American polio victims and the ravaging epidemics; the Salk and Sabin vaccines were developed on the continent, and as historian David Oshinsky has put it «[i]t was Ameri- cas gift to the world;»4 they had the presence of the famous polio victim ———— 2 SMALLMAN-RAYNAYNOR, M.R. & CLIFF, A.D. (2006), Poliomyelitis: A World Geo- graphy: Emergence to Eradication, Oxford, Oxford University Press, p. 127. 3 ROGERS, N. (1992), Dirt and Disease. Polio before FDR, New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, p. 10; OSHINSKKY, D. (2005), Polio. An American Story, New York, Oxford University Press. 4 Oshinsky is referring to the good publicity and the positive effects of the Salk vaccine being developed in the USA, in the midst of the cold war and the fight against communism. OSHINSKY (2005), p. 215. Asclepio, 2009, vol. LXI, nº 1, enero-junio, 23-38, ISSN: 0210-4466 25 PER AXELSSON Franklin Delano Roosevelt; and created the world-renowned National Foun- dation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) and its March of Dimes. These and other events are manifested in the growing body of literature on experiences of polio in the USA, and contribute to the impression of polio being a peculiar American problem.5 Nevertheless, «statistically speaking», there are countries that suffered as much from the polio epidemics as the USA. Sweden is one of them, along with the other countries of the Scandinavian Peninsula. Especia- lly Sweden had an early history of polio epidemics and during the 1911-1913 epidemic, 10.000 polio victims were reported in Sweden.6 Polio historian and virologist, Dr. John R. Paul addressed this epidemic in his monumental A History of Poliomyelitis: The outbreak went far to strengthen the unsavoury and, I may say, unjust reputation that Scandinavia had already acquired, of being not only the original source of the disease but a continuing breeding place for large epidemics. This reputation was to endure from the 1880s on —for almost forty years.7 Even if the reputation may have ceased in the 1920s, Sweden continued to be struck by large epidemics until the introduction of the vaccine. The statistics in Figure 1, are dependent on how the countries handled the statistical reporting of polio. Nevertheless it is evident that Sweden, in relation to its small popula- tion, had a very high incidence rate, above both the USA and Canada. Swedish polio epidemics are said to have begun in 1881, when physician Nils August Bergenholtz diagnosed and reported the world’s first epidemic of poliomyelitis anterior acuta in two small villages outside Umeå in the northern part of Sweden. The first account of an epidemic of poliomyelitis anterior acuta in Sweden was reported in the fall of 1881 by Nils August Bergenholtz (1816-1922) a provincial doctor in the province of Västerbotten. He reported that on August 10, eight persons had come down with the illness in the vicinity ———— 5 For further discussions on the American experience of polio see for instance SHELL, M. (2005), Polio and its Aftermath. The Paralysis of Culture, Cambridge, Harvard University Press; SMITH, J.S. (1990), Patenting the Sun. Polio and the Salk Vaccine, New York, Anchor books; WILSON, D. (2005), Living with Polio. The Epidemic and its Survivors, Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press; OSHINSKKY, D. (2005).

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