The Development of Polio Vaccines
Overview
Poliomyelitis, also known as infantile paralysis, is an acute viral infection that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Where the disease is common, most infections probably go unnoticed or result in mild symptoms, such as fever, sore throat, headache, vomiting, and stiffness of the neck and back. Before the introduction of preventive vaccines, poliomyelitis was one of the most feared childhood diseases. During some epidemic years, over 10,000 paralytic cases occurred in the United States alone. Such epidemics formed the basis for the image of polio as the great crippler of children and exerted a profound influence on the direction of medical research. The history of poliomyelitis demonstrates the value of immunization. In 1981 about twenty years after the use of the polio vaccines became widespread, the number of recorded cases in the United States reached a record low of only six cases. By the end of the twentieth century, the global eradication of polio was considered a practical goal. In the wealthy, industrialized nations, diseases such as diphtheria, measles, mumps, pertussis, and rubella have been virtually eliminated or radically reduced. Nevertheless, fewer than half of all American children under the age of two are properly immunized.
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