Preventable childhood diseases

Before vaccines became widely available, childhood infections like measles and polio were common. These illnesses can cause serious health problems and may lead to long-term disability or even death.

The display featured a child mannequin representing a boy dressed in a pyjama standing next to his bed on crutches and looking at himself in a mirror, recreating the historical photo of a boy suffering from polio-induced paralysis.

The walls of the room were covered in boxes of different types of commonly used vaccines, and there were free copies of the British Society for Immunology’s Childhood Vaccination Guide.

Posters gave some background about measles and polio as examples of vaccine-preventable childhood infections, including graphs illustrating the dramatic drop in measles and polio cases soon after the introduction of safe and effective vaccines.

A further poster contained a public letter written by Roald Dahl after his daughter Olivia’s death from measles in 1962, highlighting the seriousness of the disease and advocating for the use of the measles vaccine.

Materials to download, in English and Welsh:

➡️ Story Time: The Iron Lung

Measles is a highly contagious virus that spreads through coughing and sneezing. It causes high fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and a red rash that spreads across the body. For some children, this can lead to serious complications like pneumonia, brain swelling or blindness.

Before the measles vaccine was introduced in the 1960s, nearly every child got measles at some point. Thanks to vaccines, measles cases and deaths have dropped drastically. However, measles still causes local outbreaks, predominantly in unprotected communities.

Polio is another frightening disease. It spreads through contaminated food or water and mostly affects children under five. While some children have only mild symptoms or none at all, others develop paralysis that can last a lifetime. In severe cases, the paralysis can affect the muscles used for breathing.

The roll-out of the polio vaccines in the 1950s reduced cases by more than 99% worldwide and eradicated the disease in all but two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Thanks to vaccines, both measles and polio are now preventable. We rarely see these illnesses nowadays but continued vaccination is key to keeping communities safe and working toward the goal of wiping these diseases out completely.