Infectious Diseases In The 1950s

Spread of Infectious Diseases Among Children During the 1950s and Resolutions to These Outbreaks “Children inherit a variable amount of immunity from the mother; it does not last long, but usually is adequate to tide them over for the first year of life” (Van Dellen 20). However, in the 1950s, children began to acquire less protection compared to children from the past. Since the mothers were not acquiring these threatening diseases, they were transmitting fewer antibodies to protect their babies of these diseases. Consequently, the number of infectious diseases occurring in early childhood became a major concern. Some contagious diseases infecting the children during this time period included poliomyelitis, Staphylococcus, diphtheria,…show more content…
Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is a contagious disease that was often mistaken for the common cold due to similarities in symptoms. Because of this, many people were exposed to the infected child without knowing. It was not until the whoop sound was heard repeatedly in a child’s cough that it was evident that they had pertussis. The coughing episodes cause “the face to to become red or purple, the eyes bulge, and the veins in the scalp dilate” (Van Dellen 14). Whooping cough is spread from person-to-person by droplets traveling through the air that carry bacteria from a cough or sneeze of an infected child. Since the pertussis vaccination did not have a high success rate, the use of “the latest wonder drugs, aureomycin and chloromycetin, help[ed] to overcome the infection and therefore shorten the duration of the illness” (Van Dellen…show more content…
Despite the fact that the infectious diseases previously mentioned endangered the lives of many children during the 1950s, poliomyelitis was of the highest concern and held the greatest amount of attention amongst the population. “The germ theory combined with the rapid growth of cities in the late nineteenth century to fuel a growing concern with cleanliness and health” (Oshinsky 29). As a result, polio tended to effect the middle and upper-class neighborhoods, in addition to areas with good sanitation, rather than poverty stricken communities with poor sanitation. “As the nation cleaned up, new problems arose. There was now a smaller chance that people would come in contact with dangerous microbes early in life, when the infection was milder and maternal antibodies offered temporary protection,” (Oshinsky 31) resulting in more appearances of polio. Polio, also known as infantile paralysis, had the potential to cause partial or full paralysis in a child. However, this contagious disease had different severities. For example, in less severe cases of polio, a child might have discomfort or stiffness of the limbs of their body accompanied with a fever or a skin rash. Polio was passed on through direct contact with an infected child, infected mucus from coughing and sneezing, and feces. Elizabeth