Polio virus had people on edge almost 100 years ago

Photo: Greater Vernon Museum and Archives

A tent city was set up in Vernon in the 1920s and '30s to house children suspected of having polio.

The world is in the grip of a crisis, but this is hardly the first time a virus has caused concern.

COVID-19 is dominating news headlines; university classes, sports tournaments and large gatherings are being cancelled.

But Vernon has faced, and emerged from, epidemics in the past, a fact which might offer some solace to readers.

In the 1920s and ‘30s, a relatively new viral disease that affected some of the city’s most vulnerable enveloped Vernon in a state of panic.

In September 1927, several children in Kelowna developed headaches, fevers, malaise and muscle soreness. Vernon responded quickly, closing schools and banning children from attending public gatherings. 

The ban was lifted a few weeks later, but the Vernon Board of Health continued to caution citizens against traveling to Kelowna, and provided information about how to keep children safe.

The disease in question was infantile paralysis, or, as it is more commonly known, polio.

Although September ended with optimism by health officials Vernon had avoided any cases of polio, two boys at the Vernon Preparatory School in Coldstream were quarantined after developing symptoms that were similar to, but not considered to be, polio.

Coldstream’s Medical Health Officer, Dr. O. Morris, decided to have all the boys at the prep school quarantined. Men from Vernon and Coldstream set to the task of building a tent city for the boys in a ravine not far from the school grounds, and all measures were taken to keep the children safe and healthy.

Tents were pitched 50 feet apart, and 22 latrines were constructed, one for every two boys.

Each boy had his own tent, complete with a floor and walls, a spring bed, blankets, towels, a wash basin, soap, and an oil heater; in total, 45 tents were erected. Telephone service was even extended to the camp so that the boys could be in touch with their parents.

All the boys were tested to make sure they were healthy before they moved into the camp, so for them, living in a tent city must have been closer to camping than to being quarantined.

The Vernon Boy Scouts helped keep their friends’ spirits up by providing them with books and games. Those boys who did not pass the health examination were kept in rooms in the school building, but officials eventually decided they were not suffering from polio and sent them off to the tent city.

Photos show parent’s visiting children over barbed-wire fences, and the quarantine zone was policed at all times. Eventually, the necessary quarantine time of 21 days had passed, and the boys were sent home.

More cases of polio would strike the Okanagan in the coming years.

In 1934, three children in Kelowna fell sick. Another outbreak occurred in 1937, which once again resulted in school closures and a public gathering ban. However, this time, Vernon had its first case; high-school student Robert Beairsto, the oldest son of principal H.K. Beairsto, complained of not feeling well and was assessed by doctors has having polio.

The school ban was intended to be lifted in early October, but two more cases forced its prolongation; a 22-month-old boy living on Grandview Flats, and an 18-year-old girl in Salmon Arm, had also contracted the disease.

Robert Beairsto was young and healthy, and recovered fully, the toddler suffered greatly and developed the uncommon, yet severe, paralysis that was associated with a minority of polio cases.

However, he too, survived.