Throughout the early to mid-twentieth century, Manitobans were gripped by fear of contracting the highly contagious and devastating disease -- polio. As the century progressed, the population affected by polio grew older. In the 1920s, it was common for children under the age of four to contract the disease, compared to the 1950s and 1960s when a significant amount of cases affected children between five and nine years of age.²

Most Winnipeggers diagnosed with polio were sent to the King George Hospital. Although now demolished to make way for the Riverview Health Complex, it was located at 1 Morley Avenue, in the Lord Roberts neighbourhood of Winnipeg. The King George Hospital opened in 1914 to provide isolated hospital access for communicable diseases. In the first few years, many cases of typhoid fever, scarlet fever, and smallpox were seen. In 1919, Spanish Influenza accounted for 3,789 patients. Although over a decade before Winnipeg's first polio epidemic, the first case of polio was seen at King George in 1917. A short while after Winnipeg's cases of polio began to subside, largely due to the Salk and Sabin vaccines, the isolation ward at King George Hospital closed in 1967.³

The phrase epidemic era is used by Leah Morton to describe the six polio epidemics which occurred in Manitoba, beginning in 1928 and ending in 1953. Throughout the era, thousands of Manitobans were affected by polio. Quoting Christopher Rutty, a Canadian medical historian, Morton lists the following reported Manitoban cases for each epidemic:⁴

Overall, medical professionals in Manitoba did not handle the polio outbreaks well. As Morton describes, Manitoban health professionals:

were ill-prepared for each epidemic, approached each outbreak in a reactionary adhoc manner, relied on public health tools that did not work against polio, and failed to engage meaningfully with the knowledge created by the wider medico-scientific community.⁵

Convalescent serum was used by health professionals during Manitoba's first polio epidemic in 1928. The serum was synthesized from the blood of a "recovered" victim of polio. Dr. F.T. Cadham, head of the Provincial Laboratory of Manitoba, supported the use of the serum, despite mixed opinions of its efficacy. Ultimately the serum failed, but the Laboratory claimed the serum could lessen the effects of polio if administered early enough and continued to be used for future epidemics. Unfortunately, Dr. Cadham and the Provincial Laboratory made this assertion based on a "relatively small sample and less than stellar results."^{6, 7}

Nasal spray was also used at the time of Manitoba's next polio epidemic in 1936. Based on the ultimately wrong assumption that the nose was the point of entry for the virus, a mixture of various chemicals would be sprayed up the nose of a polio patient. Although only animal testing had been used up to this point, American and Canadian doctors recommended its use. The Manitoban mixture contained picric acid, salt, and alum which was to be sprayed up the nose several times a day. The spray did nothing to prevent or cure polio. Fortunately, the only side effect was the patient's nose would turn a bright yellow.⁸

In the 1950s, hope surrounded gamma globulin to be used against polio. Gamma globulin contains antibodies to poliovirus. Medical trials showed promise, but the sheer amount of blood needed to produce gamma globulin prevented its widespread use.⁹