Jonas Salk: A Brief History Of The Polio Vaccine

Nobody has ever discovered completely how it is that polio is spread. The best evidence suggests that the virus is excreted in the stool and passed through hand to hand or hand to mouth contact by people who do not wash their hands properly or often enough. It was during the first few years of the fifties and many years before then, that health department officials

Polio, something that can devastate anyone and everyone so very quickly. In 1953, you didn’t know when you could be infected with this life threatening disease.

With the last outbreak of Polio in the US being in 1979, many today have no recollection of the terror of this disease. The disease primarily infected children, and there seemed to be no pattern to who succumbed to it. No one could feel safe. Polio as a disease presents such horrors that even those who overcome it once can be plagued by its aftereffects in later life. Before vaccines, single outbreaks could devastate entire communities. One outbreak

Once America’s most feared diseases and causing death and paralysis across the country, thanks to vaccination, there are no reports of polio in the United States.

Almost 100 years later, the first polio outbreak was recorded in Vermont, with 132 cases. Another polio outbreak was recorded in 1916, but it was not just confined to one state this time, it was the whole U.S. that was affected. This would only be the start of an epidemic that wouldn't just affect the United States, but the

Immunizations have lowered the morbidity rate over the course of many years. Before vaccines were introduced, during 1900 through 1904, an average of 48,164 cases and 2528 deaths were caused by both severe and mild forms of smallpox in the United States. After the smallpox vaccine was introduced, the disease ceased to stop and the last case to ever be reported was in 1929. Getting vaccinated against the smallpox actually eradicated the disease, meaning it has been wiped out. Next, in 1951- 1954, on average, 16,316 polio cases and 1879 polio deaths were reported each year. Once the polio vaccine was introduced, less that 1000 cases were reported in 1962. As of 1991, wild-type polio viruses have been eliminated from the Western Hemisphere. But

The last cases of naturally occurring paralytic polio in the United States were in 1979, when an outbreak occurred among the Amish in several Midwestern states. From

Polio, short for poliomyelitis, is a disease caused by the contraction of the poliovirus. Like influenza, smallpox and cholera, polio is a viral infection. This means that it is a disease caused by the spread of a virus. It spreads rapidly, and usually through person-to-person contact. In addition, this virus can also be distributed through foods or drinks contaminated by infected fecal matter. Although polio is deadly, sometimes, contractors of polio do not show any symptoms. The

The disease poliomyelitis is more commonly known by its alternative name “polio.” The history of this disease dates back into prehistory, but major polio epidemics were not known before the twentieth century. The first clinical description of this disease was provided by a British physician named Michael Underwood, in which he described the disease as debility of the lower extremities. In the 1880s major epidemics started to occur in Europe, then made its way soon after into the United States. The first report of multiple cases was recorded in 1843 and described an outbreak that happened in Louisiana in 1841. The next large outbreak was in Boston in 1893 where there were 26 cases of poliomyelitis. The following year was the first recognized epidemic in the United States which occurred in Vermont with 132 total cases, including 18 deaths. By 1907 there were approximately 2,500 cases of polio reported in New York City alone. By 1910, epidemics of polio were regular events throughout the developed world, mostly in cities during the warmer months. In 1916 there were over 27,000 cases including more than 6,000 deaths due to polio in the United States, with more than 2,000 deaths occurring in New York City alone. Poliomyelitis hit its peak in the 1940s and 1950s; it paralyzed or killed more than half a million people per year.

Poliomyelitis, also commonly known as polio, is a viral infection that, at one point was virtually eradicated in the US (SOURCE). The last major epidemic of polio was in the early 1950's (SOURCE). Polio was characterized in one of three ways: nonparalytic

Jonas Salk was born in 1914, a time in which childhood disease and illness was great and commonly led to death. He grew up into a wealthy family and was the first of his siblings to graduate college. Salk went to college and intended study law but became interested in medical science. There were no known cures for major illnesses such as influenza and polio. In 1939, Salk became a scientist physician and a short time later began conducting research on cures for major illnesses, which later led to a great amount of success.

Polio-free U.S Polio eradication is defined as the reduction to zero of global incidence of poliomyelitis through deliberate efforts to a point that it requires no further control measures. High rates of vaccination are at the center of polio eradication in the U.S. Vaccinations help eradicate polio through interruption of endemic transmission

Polio is a viral infectious disease that affects many systems of the body and can result with the patient being paralyzed. Majority of the cases had no symptoms and it ran rampant in the U.S during 1952. It mostly affected children, and was a public epidemic, with nearly 58,000 cases being confirmed in a year. Most scientific research about the disease led to dead ends and the clinical trials of earlier polio vaccine left children dead and some of them

The discovery of the polio vaccine was an important medical and scientific breakthrough because it saved many lives since the 1950s. In the summer of 1916 the great polio epidemic struck the United states. By the 1950s hundreds of thousands of people had been struck by the poliomyelitis. The highest number of cases occurred in 1953 with over 50,000 people infected with the virus.

The polio vaccine helped to prevent polio all around the world. It was invented in 1955. It eliminated polio in the U.S. and is trying to do the same in other parts of the world. There are 2 types of vaccine: The IPV and OPV vaccines. The IPV vaccine, created by Jonas Salk, and the OPV vaccine, created by Albert Sabin. Both of