Polio is a highly contagious, devastating disease that was eliminated from the U.S. in the second half of the 20th century. Although polio has plagued humans since early times, its most extensive outbreak occurred in the beginning of the 1900s before the vaccination created by Jonas Salk, became widely available in 1955. At the height of the polio epidemic in 1952, nearly 60,000 cases with more than 3,000 deaths were reported in the United States alone. However, with widespread vaccination, wild-type polio, or polio occurring through natural infection, was eliminated from the United States by 1979. By 1964, the oral polio vaccine (OPV), developed by Albert Sabin, had become the recommended vaccine. The problem with OPV was that, in very rare cases, paralytic polio could develop either in immunized children or in those who came in contact with them. Since 1979 (when wild polio was eliminated in the United States), the approximately 10 cases per year of polio seen in this country were traced to OPV. Polio mainly affects children under five years of age. However, immune and or partially immune adults and children can still be infected with polio.There is no cure for polio, it can only be prevented through immunization. Polio vaccine, given multiple times, almost always protects a chile for life.
1953-, Salk and his associates develop a potentially safe, inactivated (killed), injected polio vaccine..
1954-, nearly two million children participate in the field trials.
1955-, news of the success of the trials is announced by Dr.
Thomas Francis in a formal press conference at Ann Arbor, Michigan, on April
12, the tenth anniversary of FDR's death. The news was broadcast both on
television and radio, and church bells rang in cities around the
1955 - 57-, incidence of polio in the
1957 - 59-, mass clinical trials of Albert Sabin's live, attenuated vaccine in
1962-, the Salk vaccine replaced by the Sabin vaccine for most purposes because it is easier to administer and less expensive.
1968-, passage of the Architectural Barriers Act, requiring that all federally financed buildings be accessible to people with disabilities.
1979-, last case of polio caused by “wild” virus in
1980s-,post-polio syndrome identified by physicians and people who had polio.
1980-, the first National Immunization Day for polio held in