Fears of polio gripped the U.S. in the mid-20th century. Parents were afraid to send their children to birthday parties, public pools or any place where children mingled. Children in wheelchairs ...

As a child, Catharine Coleborne’s mother spent a year in bed with polio. Stories like hers reveal why we can’t afford to go backwards on vaccination.

Seventy years ago, a remarkable breakthrough changed the course of public health forever. On April 12, 1955, the world received the news that Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was “safe, effective and potent ...

By the 1970s, there were fewer than 10 cases of paralysis due to polio in the U.S., and the polio virus was considered eliminated from the U.S. by 1979. Since then, collective fear of the virus has ...