Community
21 October, 2023
Vaccinate against polio
LOCAL polio survivor Susanne Rea is encouraging the local community to keep vaccinating their children and raising awareness about polio in the battle for eradication of the disease prior to World Polio Day on October 24.
Born in England, Ms Rea was diagnosed with polio at four-years-old years before the release of the polio vaccine. After one year in hospital, she survived the illness and eventually overcame her paralysis, but she said it was a traumatic experience for a child.
“I woke up one morning and couldn’t get out of bed and I was diagnosed with polio, which was going around at the time. These were days pre-vaccine,” the Cairns North resident said.
“I ended up at Birmingham Hospital for a year, just laying down because I was paralysed from the waist down. We weren’t allowed to see our parents, all I remember is seeing my parents peering at me through a porthole-type window.”
Although eventually the paralysis subsided, Ms Rea had to undergo a series of operations and therapy to be able to walk again, and as she reached her 50s, she started experiencing post-polio syndrome which now requires her to use a wheelchair.
“Polio hits you twice. There’s hundreds of thousands of Australians now living with post-polio syndrome because there was no vaccine when they were children, so I can’t stress enough that it’s really important for people to get vaccinated and put an end to polio once and for all,” she said.
On World Polio Day, Ms Rea who has been a fierce Rotary advocate for polio eradication, advised parents to always vaccinate their children.
“There are only two countries left where polio is endemic which are Afghanistan and Pakistan but there were recent cases in New York and London,” she said.
“My message on this World Polio Day is to keep your vaccination schedule up, including anti polio immunisation. All parents need to ensure their children are vaccinated for every childhood disease.
“Just because we don’t have polio in Australia right now, it doesn’t mean it can’t come back, people travel so much, we need to take the lessons from COVID.”
