Polio and Vaccines

By adlorenson

  • First U.S. Polio Epidemic

    First U.S. Polio Epidemic
    The first major documented polio outbreak in the United States occurred in Rutland County, Vermont. Eighteen deaths and 132 cases of permanent paralysis were reported.
  • Period: to

    Polio

  • Contagious Nature of Polio Discovered

    Contagious Nature of Polio Discovered
    After a series of polio epidemics in Sweden, Ivar Wickman (1872-1914) published two important findings about polio. First, he suggested that polio was a contagious disease that could be spread from person to person. Second, he recognized that polio could be present in people who did not appear to have a severe form of the disease. These cases are known as abortive cases.

  • Flexner Investigates Polio Immunity

    Flexner Investigates Polio Immunity

  • Polio Strikes FDR

    Polio Strikes FDR
    Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), future U.S. president, fell ill with what most historians think was polio.

  • The Iron Lung

    The Iron Lung
    Philip Drinker, PhD (1894-1972), and Charles McKhann, MD (1898-1988), at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard published a paper describing successful use of an artificial respirator for patients suffering from paralytic polio.

  • More Than One Type of Poliovirus Proposed

    Australian researchers Frank M. Burnet (1899-1985) and Jean Macnamara (1899-1968) infected monkeys with polio from a fatal human case of the disease. The monkeys had recovered from a previous case of polio and yet were paralyzed by the new infection. Their work showed that there was more than one type of poliovirus, and that previous infection with one type did not confer immunity to another type. The implication was clear: a polio vaccine would need to provide protection from all types of polio

  • Growing Poliovirus in Human Nervous Tissue

    At the Rockefeller Institute in New York City, researchers Peter Olitsky, MD (1917-1964), and Albert Sabin, MD (1906-1993), demonstrated a new cultivation method for poliovirus. They were able to grow the virus in human embryonic brain tissue.

  • FDR Pleads for Victory Against Polio

    FDR Pleads for Victory Against Polio
    “The dread disease that we battle at home, like the enemy we oppose abroad, shows no concern, no pity for the young. It strikes—with its most frequent and devastating force— against children. And that is why much of the future strength of America depends upon the success that we achieve in combating this disease.”

  • Bodian Finds Three Types of Poliovirus

    Bodian Finds Three Types of Poliovirus

  • Salk Begins Early Polio Vaccine Tests

    Salk Begins Early Polio Vaccine Tests
    began its first tests on humans of their killed-virus polio vaccine. The subjects were resident children in institutions for the disabled and retarded. Salk tested vaccine for all three strains of polio, some in combination, and some on their own.

  • Massive Polio Vaccine Trial Begins in U.S.

    Massive Polio Vaccine Trial Begins in U.S.
    In all, over 1.3 million children participated in the trial.
    It would take almost a year to analyze the results and determine whether the vaccine provided protection against polio.

  • The Cutter Incident

    Just a few weeks after the landmark press conference announcing success of the vaccine trials, an Idaho doctor reported a case of paralytic polio in a recently vaccinated girl. Over the next few weeks, similar reports trickled in to local health authorities. All involved a disturbing detail: paralysis began in the vaccinated arm, rather than in the legs as was more common. It soon emerged that most of the cases of paralytic polio occurred in children inoculated with vaccine produced by Cutter

  • Koprowski Begins OPV Tests

    Hilary Koprowski, having left Lederle Laboratories where he did his initial work on polio, began a series of attenuated poliovirus vaccine trials in the Congo (now Democratic Republic of Congo). His vaccine included only Type 1 poliovirus, the type responsible for most cases of polio. His team vaccinated hundreds of thousands of people. Other sites in Europe would be included as well. Some of Koprowski’s results were difficult to evaluate, though at least one study confirmed efficacy of the v

  • IPV Phased Out in U.S.

    Jonas Salk’s inactivated polio vaccine was no longer routinely used in the United States. This would be the case until 1997, when the IPV would be phased in again.

  • Polio Declared Eliminated from the Americas

  • Number of Polio-Endemic Countries Dwindles

  • Only 4 countries in the world remain polio endemic

    Afgahistan
    India
    Nigeria
    Pakistan

  • Polio Vaccination Programs Continue