The Polio Vaccine

  • The outbreak

    Polio was first discoverd and there was outbreaks acrss Louisiana
  • Period: to

    The begining of Polio

  • A Major Outbreak

    A Major Outbreak
    M major outbreak happens there were over 9000 cases just in newyork.
  • Another Large Outbreak

    There is a major outbreak of polio in Los Angeles. Nearly 2500 polio cases are treated from May through November of that year at Los Angeles County General Hospital alone.
  • FDR Announcement

    FDR announces the creation of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.
  • Sister Kenny

    Sister Elizabeth Kenny travels from her native Australia to California where she is virtually ignored by the medical community. She then travels to Minnesota where she gives the first presentation in the United States to members of the Mayo Clinic staff regarding her procedures for treating polio patients by means of hot-packing and stretching affected limbs.
  • The Grand Opening

    The first Sister Kenny Institute opens in Minneapolis.
  • Its Final

    The Sister Kenny Foundation is formed, and Kenny's procedures become the standard treatment for polio patients in the United States, replacing the ineffective traditional approaches of " convalescent serum " and immobilization.
  • World War 2 Effects

    World War II ends. Large epidemics of polio in the U.S. occur immediately after the war with an average of more than 20,000 cases a year from 1945 to 1949.
  • Another Huge Outbreak

    • There are 58, 000 cases of polio in the United States, the most ever. Early versions of the Salk vaccine, using killed polio virus, are successful with small samples of patients at the Watson Home for Crippled Children and the Polk State School, a Pennsylvania facility for individuals with mental retardation.
  • The Vaccine Program

    News of the successful vaccine trials is announced by Dr. Thomas Francis Jr. of the University of Michigan at a formal press conference held April 12 in Ann Arbor (the site where the research data from the field trials had been gathered and analyzed). A nationwide vaccination program is quickly started.
  • A Big Break

    After a mass immunization campaign promoted by the March of Dines, there are only about 5600 cases of polio in the United States.
  • An Even Bigger Break

    Only 121 cases of polio are reported nationally
  • By The Numbers

    Only 121 cases of polio are reported nationally
  • The Last Outbreak

    The last indigenous transmission of wild polio virus occurs in the U.S. All future cases are either imported or vaccine-related.
  • The Children

    More than 87 million children are immunized!