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Dancing in my dreams : confronting the spectre of polio / Kerry Highley.

Dancing in my dreams : confronting the spectre of polio / Kerry Highley.
Catalogue Information
Field name Details
ISBN 9781922235848 (paperback)
Author Highley, Kerry (author)
Title Dancing in my dreams : confronting the spectre of polio / Kerry Highley.
Publisher and/or associated date/s Clayton, Vic. : Monash University Publishing, [2016]
©2016.
Description x, 262 pages, 24 pages of unnumbered plates : black & white illustrations ; 24 cm.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary Across most of the world, an entire generation has lived free from the specter of polio, but, for 50 years during the 20th century, that fear was overwhelming. Polio rapidly became every parent's worst nightmare. Epidemics arrived silently, often with symptoms that could easily be mistaken for a common cold, and dreadful suddenness. Those who were fortunate enough to survive infection often faced an unfriendly and unhelpful world. Appropriate treatments for polio survivors were fiercely debated. In pre-World War II Australia, two women symbolized a dramatic rift between the medical community's orthodoxy and those who advocated alternative therapy. In Victoria, Dr. Jean Macnamara used splints, plaster casts, and braces for treatments. Sister Elizabeth Kenny - in her clinic in Townsville and later in the US - championed and practiced an alternative approach of little or no form of constraint for the paralyzed body, advocating gentle exercise of muscles in the early acute stage of the disease, along with hot packs to relieve pain, spasms, and muscle tightness. By the 1950s, most Western countries had abandoned the orthodoxy of immobilizing polio survivors in plaster casts for months on end. In Australia, where the medical establishment was largely unquestioned, this treatment was to remain dominant until the 1960s. Dancing in My Dreams investigates the disease of polio and its treatment over a long period, the scientific endeavor that led to the discovery of the polio virus, and the early studies in virology and immunology that culminated in the production of a polio vaccine. As the frequency of polio epidemics have declined, so has the collective memory of the experience of the disease. But, there is no cure. The growth of anti-vaccine sentiment in many societies is a complicated issue, but, as this book ends by noting, the success of a vaccination program depends on the cooperation of individuals. As long as a single child remains infected with polio, all unvaccinated children throughout the world will be at risk.
Subjects Poliomyelitis
Disabled Children -- rehabilitation
Poliomyelitis -- Treatment
Poliomyelitis -- Vaccination
Poliomyelitis -- Patients
Poliomyelitis vaccine
Poliomyelitis -- Australia -- History
Call number 2023.021
Catalogue Information 100083075 Beginning of record . Catalogue Information 100083075 Top of page .
Item Information
Barcode Shelf Location Collection Volume Ref. Status Due Date
A00963600 2023.021
General Collection   . Available to Museum Staff .  
. Catalogue Record 100083075 ItemInfo Beginning of record . Catalogue Record 100083075 ItemInfo Top of page .