Paul Alexander contracted polio in 1952 at age 6 and lived 72 years dependent on an iron lung for breathing, dying in March 2024 at age 78. Despite being paralyzed from the neck down, he earned a law degree, practiced law, and became one of the last people in the world living in an iron lung - a testament to human resilience and medical innovation.
The 1954 Salk polio vaccine field trial involved 1.8 million children across the United States and Canada, making it the largest medical trial in history. Led by epidemiologist Thomas Francis, the study tested Jonas Salk’s killed-virus vaccine against placebo, ultimately proving 80-90% effectiveness against paralytic polio and leading to the April 12, 1955 “V-Day” announcement that changed medical history.
The March of Dimes, launched by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938 as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, mobilized millions of Americans to mail dimes to the White House, ultimately funding the research that led to Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine. This grassroots campaign raised the money that bought iron lungs, built treatment centers, and bankrolled the scientists who ended the polio epidemic.
Poliomyelitis is an enterovirus infection that peaked in the United States in 1952 with more than 21,000 paralytic cases. This RNA virus has three distinct serotypes and spreads through the fecal-oral route, causing paralysis in roughly 1% of infections by destroying motor neurons in the spinal cord and brainstem.
The CDC data shows polio’s devastating impact before vaccines - over 21,000 paralytic cases in a single year. What’s remarkable is that most infections were actually mild or asymptomatic, making the paralytic cases even more tragic. The 1955 inactivated vaccine and 1961 oral vaccine transformed this from America’s most feared childhood disease to a nearly eradicated infection, with the last U.S. case in 1979.
Copyright © 2025 Kumar Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
