When was polio shots invented

Jonas Salk announces on a national radio show that he has successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio.

In —an epidemic year for polio—there were 58, new cases reported in the United States, and more than 3, died from the disease.

Salk was celebrated as the great doctor-benefactor of his time. Polio, a disease that has affected humanity throughout recorded history, attacks the nervous system and can cause varying degrees of paralysis.

Since the virus is easily transmitted, epidemics were commonplace in the first decades of the 20th century. The first major polio epidemic in the United States occurred in Vermont in the summer of , and by the 20th century thousands were affected every year. Although children, and especially infants, were among the worst affected, adults were also often afflicted, including future president Franklin D.

Roosevelt , who in was stricken with polio at the age of 39 and was left partially paralyzed. Roosevelt later transformed his estate in Warm Springs, Georgia, into a recovery retreat for polio victims and was instrumental in raising funds for polio-related research and the treatment of polio patients.

Salk, born in New York City in , first conducted research on viruses in the s when he was a medical student at New York University, and during World War II helped develop flu vaccines.

In , he became head of a research laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh and in was awarded a grant to study the polio virus and develop a possible vaccine. By , he had an early version of his polio vaccine. Salk conducted the first human trials on former polio patients and on himself and his family, and by was ready to announce his findings. This occurred on the CBS national radio network on the evening of March 25 and two days later in an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Salk became an immediate celebrity. In , clinical trials using the Salk vaccine and a placebo began on 1. In April , it was announced that the vaccine was effective and safe, and a nationwide inoculation campaign began. On February 23, , a group of children from Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, receive the first injections of the new polio vaccine developed by Dr.

Jonas Salk. Though not as devastating as the plague or influenza, poliomyelitis was a highly contagious disease that emerged in terrifying outbreaks and seemed impossible to stop. Attacking the nerve cells and sometimes the central nervous system, polio caused muscle deterioration, paralysis and even death.

Even as medicine vastly improved in the first half of the 20th century in the Western world, polio still struck, affecting mostly children but sometimes adults as well. The most famous victim of a outbreak in America was future President Franklin Delano Roosevelt , then a young politician. The disease spread quickly, leaving his legs permanently paralyzed. Salk found that polio had as many as strains of three basic types, and that an effective vaccine needed to combat all three. After mass inoculations began in , everyone marveled at the high success rate—some percent—until the vaccine caused a sudden outbreak of some cases.

After it was determined that the cases were all caused by one faulty batch of the vaccine, production standards were improved, and by August some 4 million shots had been given. Cases of polio in the U. A later version of the polio vaccine, developed by Albert Sabin, used a weakened form of the live virus and was swallowed instead of injected. There is still no cure for polio once it has been contracted, but the use of vaccines has virtually eliminated polio in the United States and around the world.

The best way to keep the United States polio-free is to maintain high immunity protection in the U. Vaccine recommendations and contraindications; composition, dosage, and administration; handling and storage.

Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link. Vaccines and Preventable Diseases. Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Polio Vaccination Pronounced [PO-lee-oh]. Minus Related Pages.

They should get one dose at each of the following ages: 2 months old 4 months old 6 through 18 months old 4 through 6 years old Almost all children 99 out of who get all the recommended doses of polio vaccine will be protected from polio.