Whooping cough

And when you add to them the many "ordinary" illnesses and afflictions it makes you wonder how on earth the human race survived at all!!

 

Thank the Lord not all of our parents etc. lived like the Queen.
Unbelievers are still rife.

 

I just read that Charles and Anne were vaccinated against polio but haven't seen anything about triple antigen or anything else. Hard to imagine just one being given although I know polio was a huge fear in the 50s. Maybe it was just a rumour at the time?

 

AND just found that on 2 August 1819 the 6 week old Princess Alexandrina of Kent became the first royal baby to be vaccinated against smallpox.

 

I can recall in our days of collecting grandchildren from primary school one of the parents there was an anti vaccinating person and often shooting her mouth off trying to get other parents to join her cause. One particular day she tried to hand me a pamphlet which I refused, kept insisting I take it so in frustration I told her where to put the pamphlet, never bothered us again. I respect that people are entitled to their opinions but they should never try to force them on to others.

That woman also had another fad for her family, drinking their own urine and washing themselves in it, she had some other very strange theories too.

I never heard her mention she was in contact with aliens from outer space but it wouldn't surprise me if she thought she was.

 

She was probably a refugee from certain Northern NSW places...not all, for anyone from those regions.
I bet she smelled wonderful too. Or did you not get that close.

 

We only came near her in the open air, I have a pretty poor sense of smell anyway so probably wouldn't have caught a whiff. We attended a presentation or something similar at the school one day and the woman's mother came and sat down beside us, within a minute my wife whispered "we have to move, don't ask why". Once we had moved my wife said "she smells awful enough to make my stomach queasy".

 

One would hope that the 'Royals' would have enough sense to indulge in vaccination considering the exposure to the public, necessary in their lives.

I thought I remembered having read that one of the male line had a crippling disease-polio?- or some other debilitating sufferance, perhaps I confuse with some one else.

 

By the way I should mention that I'm not sure how many of her fads she inflicted on the children, my youngest grandson was good friends in primary school with the woman's daughter, in fact I think at one stage they sat next to each other in class etc, I never heard of him complaining about a bad smell.

 

I get what you mean A M, the woman and her mother did have greatly beaded hair and hippyish clothes, so perhaps .........

 

Nicholas of Russia cousin of George V, son was haemophiliac? That one?

 

In the late 40s or early 50s we were banned from the River Can which flows through Admiral's Park Chelmsford because of the Polio Danger. The part of the river in Admirals park is at one place very shallow and a favoured spot for paddling and catching small fish, Tiddlers, Sticklebacks, Minnows and Miller's Thumb.

 

The initial reaction to polio was that it was just something else to catch, but this attitude soon changed.

Our first period of the morning at Grammar school one day in 1949 was history. The master said, "Before commencing the lesson I have to tell you that Burton is in hospital as he has caught polio and is in an iron lung. Now, at the Treaty of Vienna. . . ." And that was it.

About 3 years later a Birmingham City footballer contracted the disease and died and I was a regular visitor to a form mate who lived about 200 yards from him. The police were stopping everyone who entered the road and advising them to visit their GP for vaccination ASAP. My doc knew all about it and had a hypodermic syringe all ready for me. My mom worried herself silly until it became obvious I was in the clear.

 

I didn't get it like that. I can vaguely remember that along the way somewhere the vaccine was changed to the Sabin oral vaccine. The local School of Arts was opened up and everyone had to line up for the new dose. It was quite nice. Strawberry flavoured I believe.
Ok just had a look. Salk vaccine injection in 1956 and Sabin syrup in 1966. So I must have the needle when I was younger, but I do remember the one in 1966.

 

I definitely had the injection against polio, our kids "benefited" from the advance in science and had a teaspoon of stuff poked into their mouths.

We also had an outbreak of TB in my home town, probably in the early 50s, and we all had to front up and have the two or three scrapes and jabs involved. My sister was around so I would have been over 10. I remember that every child who came out of the doctor's surgery was in tears and with each one I became more and more agitated. When it was our family's turn I lost it and took off - out the door, down the stairs and under the house (squat level for an adult). Strangely enough the only person who followed me was the doctor himself. He brought himself right down to my level (no choice really, seeing he was an adult) and squatting beside me talked me around. He took my hand, calmed me down, and then brought me back to the surgery and did the evil deed which ended up being completely painless. What was even stranger was the fact that neither parent even mentioned it - if you knew my father you'd appreciate how strange that was. Needless to say I always had a sneaking admiration for that lovely doctor man.

 

A current affairs programme that I am watching at the moment has been discussing immunisation and a specialist suggested that not vaccinating your children is like playing Russian Roulette with their lives.
I well remember the TB test. A scratch on the inside forearm and if it bubbled you had it, if it didn't you were alright. Or was it the other way around. Anyway I was OK.

 

Not only your children but everyone else's as well!!!

 

I too had the scratch 'skin test' which if negative entitled one to the Sabin vaccine. tiny spoon of pink stuff. My brother 2 yrs older later found to have 'mild' polio & so followed numerous visit to a physiotherapists, behind a green curtain. Didn't stop the sound of Brothers cries emanating. Another local lass older than self said to have polio, met her- unimpressed, probably by her attitude- slightly older & knew EVERYTHING! even how I couldn't possibly have appendicitis because of pain site etc... then why the heck was it removed soon after..an excersize?

 

We're being told now that whooping cough is making a comeback and that adults can be carriers. I got the vaccine shot with my flu shot to protect other people's babies. I remember the sugar cubes, etc. from my youth. My doctor said I'm due for the shingles vaccine when I turn 60. Fine by me!