National Geographic - USA (2020-08)

IN FOCUS

Polio

A highly

infectious virus

that mainly

affects children,

polio has been

eradicated in

much of the

world thanks to

a global vaccina-

tion campaign.

But the disease

remains in a few

pockets of Asia

and Africa.

In an emergency ward at

a Boston hospital, tanklike

devices known as iron

lungs help polio patients

breathe during a 1955

outbreak. In the early 20th

century, polio was one of

the world’s most feared

diseases. Terrified parents

saw their children sud-

denly stricken and some-

times paralyzed. When the

virus attacked the muscles

that control breathing, a

patient was placed in an

iron lung, a precursor to

modern ventilators. In the

spring of 1955, a vaccine

was rolled out and led to

a 99 percent decrease in

cases worldwide.

AP PHOTO

Before a vaccine
became widely
available in the late
1950s, polio paralyzed
more than 15,000
people in the United
States every year.