Also known as “infantile paralysis,” this viral inflammation that left healthy children and adults unable to use their limbs became a source of terror for American parents and children, especially between 1945 and 1954 when it seemed as terrifying to the American dream as nuclear destruction or lurking communism. Thanks to a massive fundraising effort and targeted research, polio was conquered by vaccination, reducing its incidence dramatically and creating a new sense of power that would be recalled with cancer and AIDS. Nonetheless, post-polio syndrome has haunted survivors in the late twentieth century.

Although polio reached epidemic proportions in Sweden in 1885, the virus probably was experienced as a mild infantile condition until improved sanitation made that prophylactic exposure (via contact with fecal matter) improbable. A more virulent inflammation of the spine and its con sequences became regular threats in US outbreaks by 1916, although casualties never equaled the influenza pandemic. Polio outbreaks were met with sometimes hysterical responses—closing churches, schools and theaters as well as deserting pools and beaches to avoid the “summer plague.” In 1921 it struck rising politician Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose later resolute (and false) heartiness changed the image of the disease. Meanwhile, the National Infantile Paralysis Foundation raised money to support his center at Hot Springs, Arkansas, and more extensive research. In January 1938, with the help of radio/movie star Eddie Cantor and others, this foundation launched the March of Dimes, soliciting coins from radio listeners, children and adults, to total $1.8 million. By 1945 the NIPF raised $20 million, using maudlin appeals like its famous poster children.

The disease also took on new dimensions with overseas exposure for servicemen and the growth of new baby boom families and care. Cases rose from 10,000 annually in 1940 to 20,000 by the end of the decade. Cases peaked at 58,000 in 1952. This lead to real panic in summer months as well as isolation and stigmatization for those with even a mild case. Treatment, while improved over time, was still limited. Perhaps the most frightening image is that of the iron lung—encasing a body in a metal cylinder, causing utter dependency; immobilization was also practiced long after an Australian nurse, Sister Kenny, showed the efficacy of warm compresses and exercise.

Jonas Salk, among others, began looking for an effective vaccine in the mid-1940s, overcoming technical difficulties in producing dead virus vaccine and lack of support in the scientific community to achieve field tests in 1954, followed by widespread vaccination throughout schools. Dr Albert Sabin introduced an oral vaccine in 1958 and it soon replaced the Salk vaccine, effectively eliminating polio in the US for most populations.

In the 1980s, however, problems of new symptoms emerged. Whether recurrence of polio in an attenuated form or simply long-term muscle and nerve fatigue, post-polio syndrome has proven a haunting legacy of disease and triumph. Ironically at this same time, public debate erupted over the lack of depictions of FDR in his wheelchair in his newly constructed Washington memorial.