Éliane Fuseau was born in a small village in rural France in 1948. When she was 3 years old, she contracted poliomyelitis (polio), a highly infectious disease caused by the poliovirus, which largely affects children under 5 years of age. While most poliovirus infections are asymptomatic, others lead to flu-like symptoms, followed within hours to days by weakness and acute flaccid paralysis of the muscles. For Éliane, the infection led to paralysis in her leg.
At the time, Éliane was the only child in her village with a polio diagnosis and, due to the area’s limited medical facilities, she was sent to a paediatric hospital in Tours in central France, where she stayed for 3 months.
“My memories of that time are very sparse, but I shared a room with another girl and an ‘iron lung’, in case either of us would need it.”
In some polio patients, the virus paralyses the muscles responsible for breathing, so in the past they had to lie inside a negative-pressure ventilator shaped like a large tube, an ‘iron lung’, which acted as an artificial respirator, forcing air into and out of the lungs of patients who could not breathe on their own.
Fortunately, Éliane never needed to use the iron lung. However, she still could not walk, and so, along with her sister, who had a form of osteoarthritis, she was sent to live in a rehabilitation hospital in the French Basque Country, over 600 kilometres from her parents’ home.
Living at the hospital
Éliane lived at the Centre de Herauritz full-time until the age of 7, and then part-time until she was 11. “We were 10 or 12 kids in 1 big room. Most of us children in this hospital had 1 paralyzed leg. One girl also had paralysed arms. We had nurses taking care of us, and people from the village were cooking, making the shoes and making the orthotics.”
Since the children came from all over France, and trains were expensive, many saw their parents infrequently.
“I think my father came only twice in 7 years to the hospital. My mother must have come a few more times because she made friends locally,” remembers Éliane. “It was a long time to be apart, but the rehabilitation facility was like a second family. We were just embedded into the village.”
A photo from the time shows her standing with canes, heavy shoes and a brace on her right leg. She remembers swimming for rehabilitation and doing exercises that used a pulley system and sandbags to build up muscles in the limbs.
“By the time we left the hospital, we had gained so much movement. After a few years there, we all managed to get around, using crutches, our legs, wheelchairs, whatever. We all had a totally integrated life. There was never any idea that we could stay home.”
A shared childhood
The doctor who opened the hospital in 1952, Dr Anne Barriere, had contracted polio as a child and walked with canes. “She always said that we just had to work harder than anybody else,” Éliane says. “It was very, very clear to us that there was no big obstacle. We could do whatever we wanted.”
Encouraged and inspired by Dr Barriere, Éliane went on to study biochemistry and had a successful career in pharmaceuticals. Two years ago, the facility that became a second home for Éliane hosted a reunion. From that celebration, an association of former patients was formed, to meet and exchange memories.
Éliane explains that this group of former patients works endlessly to create a place in the Centre de Herauritz that will tell their stories about polio for generations to come.
“Because new cases of polio are so rare now, it is very important to keep a clear record of our hardships, so that parents do not neglect or forget to provide vaccination to their kids.”
“Most of us are in our 70s and 80s, and most of us are in wheelchairs now. Many of the helpers, the medics, the nurses and the physicians, are also still alive. Some are still working. My old physical therapist, Cécile Dubois, is well past 90 years of age and part of the association.”
“The distance between having a vaccine available and no vaccine is so huge. I don’t even know how to cross it, how to make this intelligible for someone. I would probably refer to all that is around me: my wheelchair; the big, adapted van I have to drive; all the complications of my life. I can live with my disability because I earn enough money. People who don’t have money, some of them can’t even leave their homes.”
Progress against polio
In France, large-scale polio vaccination campaigns began in the late 1950s, which means that all generations since then have been protected from the hardships faced by Éliane and her peers. Globally, major progress has been made towards ending polio, with only 2 countries still endemic for wild poliovirus. In the WHO European Region, the achievement of polio-free status has been maintained since 2002 through high routine immunization coverage, laboratory-supported surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis, and environmental surveillance in selected sites. However, as long as poliovirus is circulating anywhere in the world, all countries are at risk of importation and possible transmission.
WHO/Europe works with national authorities to assess risks, close immunity gaps, support preparedness plans, and respond to detections of poliovirus through targeted vaccination and intensified monitoring – helping protect every child and prevent re-establishment of transmission.