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Drs. Karl Landstiener and Erwin Popper both proved that polio truly was an infectious disease by showing that monkeys injected with tissue from a person who died of polio also became infected with the disease.
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Drs. John Enders, Frederick Robbins, and Thomas Weller all made a breakthrough when they discovered how to grow the polio virus in cell cultures
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Drs. Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin developed two polio vaccines that basically teach the immune system how to defend itself from polio by exposure to the virus in a weakened form.
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Jonas Salk tried a refined vaccine on children who had already had polio and recovered. After the vaccination, the children's antibodies to polio increased
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A nationwide testing of Jonas Salk's vaccine was launched in April 1954 mostly to school children and the results were amazing. 60-70 % prevention of the disease and Jonas Salk was praised by many.
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In 1955, the U.S. government quickly granted permission for the polio vaccine to be administered to the children of the United States. Most likely this permission was quick due to Roosevelt actually contracting polio.
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In 1957, a researcher called Albert Sabin tested a vaccine that could be swallowed and not applied by a shot. This vaccine was licensed in 1962 and it quickly became the vaccine of choice.
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In 1994, poliomyelitis was declared eradicated from all of the Americas and the only cases of polio today are mostly in developing countries .
