polio epidemic
Mass paralytic disease
A polio epidemic is a widespread outbreak of poliomyelitis, an infectious viral disease that attacks the nervous system and can cause paralysis or death.
The term evokes mid-twentieth-century summers when swimming pools closed and parents kept children indoors: The polio epidemic of 1952 paralyzed thousands.
Mass vaccination campaigns have since eliminated polio epidemics from most of the world.
- vaccineDisease prevention injection
- SalkPolio vaccine creator
- sugar cubePressed crystalline sweetener block
- iron lungBody-encasing mechanical respirator
- paralysisLoss of muscle function
outbreak · crippling · March of Dimes · Roosevelt · infantile · quarantine · wheelchair · braces · leg · fever · contagious · summer · swimming pool · virus · vaccination · eradication · public health · crutches
- 20th CenturyWorld War I aftermath, Cuban Missile Crisis, atomic bomb, New Deal, Nazi Germany
- public healthdisease prevention, immunization, disease control, health education, epidemiology
- epidemicsoutbreak, disease, Black Death, cholera, virus
- Poliopoliovirus, paralysis, iron lung, Jonas Salk, Salk vaccine
- US Medical HistoryJonas Salk, Salk vaccine, Clara Barton, Walter Reed, Mayo Clinic
- 1952 eventsHigh Noon, Mad magazine, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson
polio, epidemic, epidemics, poliomyelitis, endemic, pandemic, pandemics