Medicine and Health

Explore medicine and health through original reporting and archival coverage, featuring breakthroughs, public-health debates, medical discoveries, and the stories that shaped how we understand health today.

Man in 1957 experiencing what polio victims experience by laying in an iron lunch

Fight Against Polio: A Look Back at the Epidemic Before a Vaccine

Polio was a devastating disease, paralyzing or killing many, especially children. In 1952, it caused nearly 58,000 cases in the U.S., with over 3,000 deaths and 21,000 paralyses. The 1955 vaccine reduced cases by 90% in five years, but rising vaccine skepticism risks reversing this progress. Vaccines remain vital to preventing a resurgence.

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