Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was diagnosed with polio at age
39 in 1921 after falling ill while vacationing at Campobello Island,
Canada.

The illness resulted in permanent paralysis from the waist down,
though some medical experts now suggest his symptoms were
more consistent with Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Despite the crippling effects of the disease, Roosevelt used his
experience to create the Warm Springs Foundation to help 
others with polio.      

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wheelchair on display at the New
York State Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (2016). Roosevelt used
this wheelchair at the Executive Mansion during his term
as governor from 1928 to 1932.

  
MIKE CRACIA

On March 26, 1953, American medical researcher Dr. Jonas
Salk announced on a national radio program that he has
successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the
virus that causes the crippling disease of polio.

In 1952—an epidemic year for polio—there were 58,000 new
cases reported in the United States, and more than 3,000
died from the disease.

For his work in helping to eradicate the disease, which is
known as “infant paralysis” because it mainly affects young
children, Dr. Salk was celebrated as the great doctor-
benefactor of his time.

On February 23, 1954, a group of children from Arsenal
Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received
the first injections of the new polio vaccine developed by
Dr. Jonas Salk. Thanks to the vaccine, by the 21st century
polio cases were reduced by 99 percent worldwide.

According to the World Health Organization, polio cases
have been reduced by 99 percent and survives only among
the world’s poorest and most marginalized communities.

Dr. Jonas Salk, the scientist who created the polio vaccine, administers an injection to an unidentified boy at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1954.

  
CAMILLE BOHANNON

On August 10, 1921, after a day of strenuous activity, 39-year-old 
Franklin D.Roosevelt came down with an illness characterized by
fevers, ascending paralysis, facial paralysis, prolonged bowel
and bladder dysfunction, and numbness and hypersensitivity
of the skin. Roosevelt came close to death from the illness.

Lieutenant Governor George Lunn, FDR, John W. Davis, and
Al Smith at Roosevelt’s family home in Hyde Park, New York. FDR is supporting himself on crutches. August 7, 1924.

FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt at their home in Hyde Park,
New York during the annual pilgrimage of the Dutchess
County Historical Society. September 16, 1927.