The Salk Polio Vaccine: A Medical Miracle Turns 60

December 3, 2014

(U.S. News and World Report) – The first major U.S. polio epidemic occurred in 1894 in Vermont, with 132 cases. New York City experienced its first large-scale outbreak in 1916, with more than 27,000 cases and 6,000 deaths. By the 1940s, polio was a plague across the country. Modern sanitation probably sparked the emergence of the disease in the early 20th century, said David Oshinsky, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Polio: An American Story.