PEDIATRICS Vol. 74 No. 3 September 1984, pp. 442
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Poliomyelitis: Its Global Demise?

THOMAS H. WELLER MD1

1 Department of Tropical Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston

During the summer of 1955, Massachusetts suffered its most severe epidemic of poliomyelitis with 3,950 cases. Those who were pediatric residents or parents during this period retain vivid memories of the physical and emotional problems of that summer. Some 1,035 cases were admitted to the Children's Hospital in Boston and the corridors in the isolation unit became occluded with clanking Drinker respirators.1 The year 1955 also saw the licensing of inactivated poliomyelitis vaccine, followed in 1961-1962 by the licensing of live attenuated oral vaccines. Extensive utilization of poliomyelitis vaccines has led to the virtual eradication of poliomyelitis in the United States, and now poliomyelitis is a disease out of sight and out of mind for contemporary pediatric residents and parents in the United States.