On This Day in History March 26

On March 26, 1953, American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announced that he tested a vaccine against the virus that causes polio, a crippling disease that can lead to partial or full paralysis.  1952 was an epidemic year for polio in the United States with 58,000 new cases of polio and more than 3,000 deaths attributed to the virus.  Polio is often called “infant paralysis” as the virus mainly affects children.

Polio is easily transmitted from human to human, attacking the nervous system and causing varying degrees of paralysis.  The first half of the twentieth century saw numerous epidemics, with thousands of people being affected every year.  Until the introduction of a vaccine to protect people from contracting polio, the only treatment was limited to quarantines and the “iron lung”, a metal coffin-like device that helped the person breathe.  Although children, especially young children, were the worst infected, adults also contracted polio including future president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who in 1921 at age 39 was left partially paralyzed.

Salk’s procedure injected several strains of dead virus into a healthy person, thereby causing their immune system to create antibodies that would fight future exposures to polio.  His first human trials included injecting former polio patients, himself, and even his family, with the vaccine.  In 1955, an announcement was made that the vaccine was effective and safe.  A national inoculation campaign began and new polio cases dropped to under 6,000 in 1957, the first year after inoculations began.  In 1962, a oral version of the vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin, greatly improving the distribution of the vaccine.


Today, just a handful of polio cases are reported annually in the United States, most often from people who have been to developing nations and brought it back with them.  However, polio is still in epidemic proportions in less developed countries, such as Chad, Senegal, and India.  Organizations such as Rotary International have made it their mission to immunize as many children in these countries as possible and put an end to polio.

According to Rotary.org, a campaign to immunize 85 million children in 19 countries across West and Central Africa began on March 6, 2010 in order to stop a year-long epidemic. A similar campaign was launched in February 2010 in India with 100 million children being vaccinated.  Excellent job, Rotary International!