On April 26, 1954, the Salk polio vaccine field trials, involving
1.8 million children, began at the Franklin Sherman Elementary
School in McLean, Virginia.

Children in the United States, Canada and Finland participated
in the trials, which used for the first time the now-standard
double-blind method, whereby neither the patient nor attending
doctor knew if the inoculation was the vaccine or a placebo.

One year later, on April 12, 1955, researchers announced the
vaccine was safe and effective and it quickly became a standard
part of childhood immunizations in America.

Jonas Salk holding bottles of culture he        
used to develop the polio vaccine.

Today, polio has been eliminated throughout
much of the world due to the vaccine; but,
there is still no cure for the disease and it
persists in a small number of countries in
Africa and Asia.

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.

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

On February 23, 1954, a group of children from Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, receive the first injections of
the new polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk.

Jonas Edward Salk
(October 28, 1914 – June 23, 1995)