Which disease did Frida Kahlo contract as a child?

Frida Kahlo contracted polio as a child.

Kahlo became ill with polio in 1913, when she was about six years old. The disease damaged her right leg, leaving it shorter and weaker than the left. She later used long skirts and other clothing to conceal or incorporate the difference into her appearance.

Her childhood illness was not the same event as the 1925 bus accident. Polio affected her leg years earlier, while the accident caused severe injuries to her spine, pelvis, and other parts of her body. The two events are often blended together in simplified biographies.

Kahlo’s later paintings frequently addressed physical pain, medical treatment, and bodily difference. However, not every medical symbol in her work refers specifically to polio; many relate to the accident, surgeries, miscarriages, and chronic pain that followed.