Anyone here remember the mass polio vaccination?

I had every jab there was going. My best friend had polio. Like you 4allweknow, I seem to remember there being a course of 3 painful jabs over a few months for polioand each one got bigger - the last one, well the needle 'was at least 3ft long!!!'.

I too remember the iron lungs on Emergency Ward 10. Awful. I think I had the vaccine at school.

Does anyone remember the mobile chest X-ray units? I had to have a chest X-ray before going to teacher training college in the late 1960s.

I vividly remember getting my sugar cube vaccine against polio.I was so happy that I wouldn’t die, or be in an iron lung, or get callipers. My daughter hesitated about vacuuming her children, she has lots of anti vax friends. Her children were vaccinated thank goodness.

The fact so many here have memories of having polio or knowing someone who’d had it tells a story, doesn’t it? I had polio jabs and I recall being taken for a smallpox jab in the 60’s, I think. My Dh is a bit older than me and he recalls that because they started with younger children first, his sister had the polio jab but he didn’t. It didn’t stop him from going to play in the busy river, though, despite the dire warnings given by his parents and school.

I don’t remember having the polio vaccine but I vaguely remember there was a scare about polio and parents were taking precautions. There was a paddling pool in the park near our house and I remember my Mum not wanting me to go in it one summer. A friend at primary school wore a leg iron which was a result of polio and so did one of our primary school teachers. I do have a very clear memory of the TB vaccine which was given soon after I started grammar school. I had a terrible reaction to it, puss was coming out of the area for weeks and the whole if my upper arm was extremely painful, I still have the scar.

My Mum didn't want me to have the TB vaccine for some reason (we had all the others). However, I insisted on having it and I'm glad I did. My first job was in a hospital and I looked after a lady who unbeknown to us, had TB. It was discovered at her post mortem. It took the authorities months to trace all her contacts. If I hadn't had the jab, I could have caught it and passed it on to many other people..

Also sugar cube in the 60's

I don't remember it because I was a baby but I received the sugar cube version in Hull in 1961. It was still controversial at that point because, unlike the first vaccine, it contained live virus but Hull was in a desperate situation. A massive outbreak was on the cards and parents queued for hours to get their children vaccinated. Mass vaccination worked.

Granny23 I was also going to post about Rotary's amazing work in helping to eradicate polio from around the world. It is down to the last two countries now.

My Dad was an anti-vaxxer - purely out of ignorance I think. So we weren't vaccinated for anything. We did have the polio vaccine, though, because, I think, it was compulsory. I remember queuing at the village hall and getting the lump of sugar. That must have been about 1962/63.

Then in the 3rd year (so about 1967) all girls had to have a "Heaf test". We waited outside the Senior Mistress's office and when we went in we were jabbed with this little circle of blunt pins on the inside of our forearm. If that came up red we were immune against TB, but nearly all of us had no reaction and had to queue outside the Senior Mistress's office again 10 days later for a TB jab.

In 1974 there was a case of smallpox in the UK and my mother smuggled me into the queue with the kids going on an exchange trip to France, as I was due to go to Germany and everyone who left the country had to have the jab. It wasn't the one that left a mark on your arm, though.

I think I'm too young to remember the mass injections against polio though.

I don't think I had the German measles vaccine and had it mildly when I was 12. I sailed through two pregnancies happy in the knowledge that I would be immune according to received wisdom. My daughter then caught it aged 3 and I caught it from her! The doctor decided I was one of the few that didn't become immune. It horrified me at the thought of what could have happened to either of my DCs.

I remember the polio vaccination.also when all the swimming pools were closed. I was at school with a very pretty girl who had a withered leg due to polio.Tne worst vaccination I had was small pox,it was really painful.
That said I am a firm advocate ofvaccinations

annifrance

I don't think I had the German measles vaccine and had it mildly when I was 12. I sailed through two pregnancies happy in the knowledge that I would be immune according to received wisdom. My daughter then caught it aged 3 and I caught it from her! The doctor decided I was one of the few that didn't become immune. It horrified me at the thought of what could have happened to either of my DCs.

I had German measles as a child and then again when I was au pairing aged 19. There are 2 kinds. So I was definitely immune. My youngest DS came out in a rash when he was about 3 months and the paediatrician was amazed to find it was German measles. I don't understand that to this day!