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President Roosevelt contracts polio in Canada
Polio quietly preyed on thousands of young Canadians. The disease caused paralysis, deformed limbs and in the most severe cases, death by asphyxiation. In Canada, polio was so feared that as recently as the 1950s, it closed schools, emptied streets and banned children under 16 from entering churches and theatres. In 1955 it looked as though a miraculous polio vaccine signalled an end to new cases of the crippling disease. But a recent medical condition known as post-polio syndrome has survivors reliving the sequel to this once-forgotten nightmare.
Program: CBC News Roundup
Broadcast Date: April 14, 1945
Guest(s):
Commentator: John Fisher
Duration: 2:33
Last updated: March 7, 2013
Page consulted on April 30, 2013
All Clips from this Topic
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Polio has a particularly devastating impact on children.
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Remembering American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt's brush with ...
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Polio patients from Canada's North are flown in for treatment.
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Polio turns Canadian cities into ghost towns.
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Jonas Salk's vaccine is proven to be safe and effective against the po...
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University of Toronto's Connaught Lab is at the forefront of polio res...
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Looking back on the day Jonas Salk announced a vaccination for polio.
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A 1959 public announcement urging people to get the polio vaccination.
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Polio battle leads to bitter rivalries and jealousies.
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Polio victims relive their nightmare as old symptoms return.
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A look back at the year 1953 when polio last stalked Canada.
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Looking back on the 40th anniversary of the Salk vaccine.
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The crippling disease that is sweeping Canada reaches the North, where...
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Polio quietly preyed on thousands of young Canadians. The disease caus...