Do you know what happened 100 years ago on January 31, 2025? A team of sled dogs and their musher skidded into the tiny town of Nome, Alaska with lifesaving medicine. Over 5 days, 20 mushers and 160 dogs traveled 674 miles through the Alaskan winter to deliver medicine to children with diphtheria. You probably recognize this story from movies like Balto or Togo about two of the lead dogs. But if you don’t recognize diphtheria, it’s probably because of vaccines!
Diphtheria was called the “the strangling angel” because it causes a membrane to grow over someone’s windpipe until they could no longer breathe. For centuries, this bacteria would spread from person to person and kill thousands every year, most of them children. While you may not learn about them in school, history is full of grieving parents who lost their children to diphtheria or other vaccine-preventable diseases, from Princess Alice of the United Kingdom to civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois to author Roald Dahl.
We share these stories not to scare or upset you, but to highlight how wonderful it is to have medicine that can treat diseases like diphtheria and vaccines that can prevent them entirely. Parenting is hard enough without having to worry about diseases from ages past!
If you’re looking for something to do with the kids this Presidents’ Day, join the Broome County Health Department at the Vestal Public Library for a free event featuring the screening of the animated classic Balto! Mark your calendar and join us on February 17th from 2-3:30pm.
Meanwhile, you can take the time to make sure your child is protected against diseases like diphtheria! The Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has easy-to-read, parent-friendly summaries of what vaccines your children need and when! Just visit chop.edu/vaccine-education-center/vaccine-schedule. If you have any questions, you can always speak with your child's healthcare provider.
This article is sponsored by the Broome County Health Department, a valued sponsor of Macaroni KID Binghamton. We appreciate your support in reviewing our sponsors' articles and hope that their offerings are useful for you and your family.
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