Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The history of polio (poliomyelitis) infections began during prehistory. Although major polio epidemics were unknown before the 20th century, [1] the disease has caused paralysis and death for much of human history. Over millennia, polio survived quietly as an endemic pathogen until the 1900s when major epidemics began to occur in Europe. [1]
Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky, professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin, documents the polio epidemic in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s and the race to develop a vaccine, which led to 2 different types of polio vaccine: inactivated poliovirus vaccine, developed by a team led by Jonas Salk, and oral poliovirus vaccine, developed by a team led by ...
He caught polio while in high school during a 1950s polio epidemic. [132] Paul Edgar Philippe Martin: born 1938: Prime Minister of Canada from 2003 to 2006. He caught polio in 1946, which paralysed his throat, and took almost a year to fully recover. [133] [134] Paul Joseph James Martin: 1903–1992
The 1950s was a turning point for polio. Amidts deadly outbreaks, Jonas Salk developed a vaccine that saved countless from the virus. RFK Jr.'s key advisor petitioned to revoke approval of the ...
A few years later, during a polio outbreak in Canada, "masked bandits" stole 75,000 Salk vaccine shots from a Montreal university research center. [25] Just months after the vaccine's success was announced, American President Eisenhower signed the Polio Vaccination Assistance Act of 1955, to ensure the vaccine would be distributed to the public ...
During the early 1950s the UK was rocked by a series of polio epidemics, with as many as 8,000 people suffering paralytic poliomyelitis. The epidemics ended with the introduction of the oral polio ...
Poliomyelitis (/ ˌ p oʊ l i oʊ ˌ m aɪ ə ˈ l aɪ t ɪ s / POH-lee-oh-MY-ə-LY-tiss), commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. [1] Approximately 75% of cases are asymptomatic; [5] mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe symptoms develop such as headache, neck stiffness, and paresthesia.
Before the first vaccine was developed in the 1950s, polio was among the most feared diseases. An explosive 1916 outbreak in New York killed more than 2,000 people and the worst recorded U.S. outbreak in 1952 killed more than 3,000. Many people who survived polio suffered lifelong consequences, including paralysis and deformed limbs.