Conquest of Polio

The near-perfect effectiveness of mass vaccinations against poliomyelitis has been dramatically proved in figures just released by the Center for Disease Control: in 1969, there were only 19 cases of paralytic polio in the U.S., and not a single death. It was the first year without a polio fatality in the half century since records have been kept, and probably since 1894, when the disease was first recognized in the U.S. By contrast, in 1952--just before the first Salk vaccine became generally available--3,145 deaths were reported, and 21,269 additional victims suffered varying degrees of paralysis.

Unfortunately, it is already clear that this year's record will not be quite so good as last year's. There has been an outbreak of polio, with four deaths, in two Texas counties bordering on Mexico: one child was unvaccinated, and three others had not completed the vaccine series. Other sporadic outbreaks can be expected among the unvaccinated in the future, but last year's record makes it clear that the once dreaded summer polio season is a problem of the past.

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