Visual Culture and Health Posters

Title:: Polio: No Paralice Sus Suenos

(high resolution jpg) High resolution version (5,166,835 Bytes)

Description:

When a series of polio epidemics swept across North America in the 1940s and 1950s, modern medicine was powerless to stop them until the development of the polio vaccine. Its impact was nothing short of miraculous. The development of an injectable form of the Salk polio vaccine in 1955 stimulated widespread administration in schools and clinics in industrialized countries, resulting in a marked drop in cases. For decades the U.S. remained ahead of countries like Mexico in the percentage of children vaccinated. After the measles pandemic reached Mexico in 1990 and killed nearly 6,000 children, however, the Mexican government established a central authority to oversee the national vaccination campaign, known as the National Immunization Program. Posters such as this one are used to promote compliance. Immunization campaigns are run three times a year, with uniformed brigades of nurses keeping careful watch over vaccination rates, neighborhood by neighborhood. Below the image of the wheelchair bound child slumped over the prominent headline "POLIO," the caption reads, "Don't paralyze their dreams." Using an appeal to parental responsibility, the remaining text informs the viewers when to vaccinate their children. In 2002, Mexico had a 96 percent vaccination rate for children ages 1 to 4, compared with an immunization rate of 79 percent for 2-year-olds in the United States.

NOTE: Slide of original poster image is slightly blurry.

Number of Image Pages:

1 (592,185 Bytes)

Date Supplied:

ca. 1990

Creator:

National Immunization Program (Mexico)

Source:

Original Repository: The History of Medicine Division. Prints and Photographs Collection.

This image may also be accessed from the Images from the History of Medicine (IHM).

URL: http://wwwihm.nlm.nih.gov/

IHM Order Number: A025916

Publisher:

National Immunization Program (Mexico)

Rights:

Reproduced with permission of the Health Department, Mexico City.

Subject:

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH):: Immunization Programs; Polioviruses; Public Health

Visual Culture and Public Health Keywords:: Immunization

Exhibit Category:

Infectious Disease

Unique Identifier:

VCBBCP

Document Type:

Posters

Slides (photographs)

Language:

Spanish

Format:

image/jpeg

image/tif

Physical Condition:

Good

Metadata Last Modified Date:

2004-08-13

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