Polio
Before the polio vaccine was available, an average of 50,000 polio cases were reported in the U.S. each year. Polio was one of the most dreaded childhood diseases of the 20th century with annual epidemics, primarily during the summer months. This often left thousands of victims -- mostly children -- permanently in braces, crutches, wheelchairs or in iron lungs. Because polio can paralyze the diaphragm, in the 1940s and 1950s, entire wards of hospitals housed polio victims who were dependent on large iron lungs that breathed for them.
Thanks to the discovery of the vaccine, polio has been eradicated from the U.S. and the entire Western Hemisphere. We continue to vaccinate against polio because it still remains a threat in some countries and could easily be transported by an infected person back into the United States.
