Growing up, my introduction to communicable diseases was mainly limited to what I read in books, like More All-of-a-Kind Family in which an epidemic of â??infantile paralysisâ? left Aunt Lena with a limp. Communicable diseases were in the murky past. I am of the generation who grew up free of the gripping fear that descended on communities during periods of epidemics.
The only personal experience Iâ??d had with serious epidemics was â??Joe,â? a congregant in the synagogue I used to lead. In 1955, 6-year-old Joe was living in Chicago when the cityâ??s children were getting the first Salk vaccines for polio. Before his side of the city received the vaccine, he got the polio virus. He lost the use of his legs. Thirty years later, Joe fell ill with post-polio syndrome, a condition that affects up to half of those who survive an acute case of polio. He was on a ventilator for the remainder of his life.
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