How Did Jean Macnamara Help Vanquish Polio?

In the early 1900s, Australian doctor Jean Macnamara helped the world learn how polio works -- and helped patients rehabilitate. Learn more in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/-jean-macnamara.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
brain Stuff, Lauren bobebam here. Living through a global pandemic
will have a wealth of unintended consequences, positive and negative,
but one will certainly be a greater appreciation for people
in medical professions, from those on the front lines treating

(00:22):
patients to the researchers laboring behind the scenes seeking to
isolate viruses and discover vaccines, both now and in the past.
Dame Gene McNamara was one such hero. She witnessed and
made remarkable contributions in her chosen profession, medicine, principally in
the area of polio research and her work with patients

(00:45):
with partial or complete paralysis. McNamara was born in Victoria, Australia,
on April one. She was born into a family that
prized hard work and education, and she excelled at both.
McNamara attended Press Tyrian Ladies College and became the editor
of the school's magazine, winning the prize for General Excellence.

(01:05):
She distinguished herself at the University of Melbourne, graduating in
ninety two with degrees in both surgery and anatomy. She
went on to become a resident medical officer at the
Royal Melbourne Hospital. McNamara was just twenty three years old
when she was appointed resident at the Royal Children's Hospital
in May of nineteen three, where she worked until nineteen

(01:26):
It was a critical time as a horrifying disease, polio
myelitis also known as polio, was sweeping the globe. After
leaving the hospital, mcnamaro worked as a clinical assistant for
a children's outpatients physician and entered private practice to focus
on polio patients. But it was in McNamara's research where
she shone brightness. It was her conclusion that immune seram

(01:49):
needed to be used in polio treatment during the pre
paralytic stage. She published and defended her results in both
Australian and British journals, though it was a treatment that
was never widely administered. While visiting Princeton University, McNamara also
learned about the virus myzomatosis that infected and killed rabbits.
It was at her urging the Australian government held field

(02:11):
trials using the virus to eradicate millions of Australia's rabbits,
considered to be pests that had overpopulated the country. However,
it was her discovery in nineteen thirty one, along with
Australian virologist Sir Frank McFarlane Burnett, of more than one
strain of the poliovirus, that made her reputation. They're Finding
is credited as one of the first steps toward the

(02:33):
eventual discovery of the stock vaccine. She traveled to England
and North America on a Rockefeller fellowship from September of
nineteen thirty one to October of nineteen thirty three, even
meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, himself a victim of polio.
In addition to her keen interest in curing disease, McNamara
sought to alleviate the pain and suffering that it left

(02:53):
in its wake. She's credited with ordering the first artificial
respirator or ventilator in Australia. She introduced novel approaches to
rehabilitation and splinting damaged limbs, most developed in conjunction with
conversation with patients and her own splint maker. McNamara proved
to be a tireless advocate for people with disabilities, long
before it was a widespread consideration She married a fellow physician,

(03:18):
dermatologist Joseph Connor, in thirty four, and in nineteen thirty
five McNamara was appointed Name Commander of the Order of
the British Empire for her services to the welfare of children.
She died of heart disease in nineteen sixty eight. Today's
episode is based on the article polio doc Gene McNamara's

(03:40):
work CRUs Viruses can be Vanquished on how stuffworks dot Com,
written by Patty rest Musin. Brain Stuff is production of
by Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com
and is produced by Tyler Clang. For more podcasts by
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