History of Polio
Poliomyelitis was recognized as a problematic infection in 1840 by Jakob Heine, and Poliovirus was identified in 1908 by Karl Landsteiner. Polio had quietly existed for thousands of years until the 1880s, when major epidemics began appearing in Europe. Soon after, widespread epidemics appeared in the United States. There have been many men and women that have been diagnosed with Polio, but the most famous was the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He caught Polio while on vacation and was permanently paralyzed from the waist down. By 1910, much of the world experienced dramatic increases in polio cases and the epidemics became regular events, most often during the summer. Polio was one of the most dreaded childhood diseases in the 20th century. These epidemics left thousands of children and adults paralyzed, but provided the initiative for developing a vaccine. The vaccines, first discovered in the 1950s, have reduced the total number of Polio cases per year dramatically.