Paralysed with Fear: The Story of Polio by Gareth Williams – review

The history of polio and its treatment is one of dead ends, missed opportunities and downright skulduggeryMost British doctors and nurses working today will never have treated a case of polio. The closest most of us ever come to the polio virus is swallowing a sugarcube containing the oral vaccine or taking our children for their jabs. Today, we stand on the brink of eradicating polio from the world.Yet for anyone over the age of 50, polio still casts nightmarish shadows of babies entombed in iron lungs, children hobbling in leg irons and adults confined in wheelchairs. Seemingly appearing out of nowhere in unstoppable epidemics, polio killed or paralysed millions, and mostly affected children. The disease grabbed headlines, stoked panic and drove massive fundraising campaigns. Doctors and scientists were powerless to prevent or treat the scourge. Polio, as Gareth Williams suggests in his fascinating study, was one of the diseases that defined the 20th century. It is a disease that also defines the history of medicine.Some might prefer to read a history of polio that unfolds a stirring narrative of dramatic breakthroughs by men and women working tirelessly to beat a merciless disease. As with much medical history, however, heroes are few and great leaps forward rare. Instead, the truth is a sorry tale of missed opportunities, dead ends and outright skulduggery by scientists apparently driven more by professional rivalry and self-aggrandisement than heroism, emp...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Tags: The Guardian Culture Health Vaccines and immunisation Reviews Books Polio Science and nature Source Type: news