The insecticide, DDT, was in use during WWII to fight insect-born diseases, like typhus and malaria, and was put into use in the United States after WWII, 1945-1972.
Decreed on June 14, 1972, DDT was officially banned on December 31, 1972.
1894, the first U.S. Polio epidemic.
1908, In Vienna, Karl Landsteiner, MD (1868-1943), and Erwin Popper, MD (1879-1955), announced that the infectious agent in polio was a virus.
1921, Polio strikes FDR. Odd statement of uncertainty for a president assumed by the world to have been paralyzed by polio, "Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), former New York State Senator, Assistant Secretary to the Navy, and future U.S. president, fell ill with what most historians think was polio."
So polio cases began in the 1930s?
1930s, The falling price of the Iron Lung enabled mass distribution and widespread use from the end of the 1930s onwards. The cost of one iron lung in the 1930s amounted to US-$1,500, which is the equivalent of approximately US-$26,000 in 2016 when accounting for inflation.
1931, more than one type of poliovirus proposed.
1936, Growing poliovirus in human nervous tissue.
1938, March of Dimes was born.
1941, Poliovirus in the digestive system, what Suzanne Humphries calls commensal poliovirus. She says "The poliovirus is a normal commensal that lives within healthy human intestines. It's been shown that Indian tribes in South America where they have all three strains [of polioviruses] in the intestines.
1949, Bodian finds three types of polioviruses.
1950s, Poliovirus itself would not be visible to researchers until the 1950s when the electron microscope was available.
1953, Salk gives polio vaccines to his family. Salk injected himself, his wife, and their three sons with his experimental poliovirus vaccine.
1954, Massive polio vaccine trials in the United States.
1955, Announced the results of the Salk poliovirus vaccine trial. The vaccine, they said, was 80-90% effective against paralytic polio. The U.S. government licensed Salk’s vaccine later this same day. The press conference and licensure paved the way for widespread distribution and use of the vaccine.
1959, Soviet trial of Sabin's live poliovirus vaccine.
1960, Sabin's polio vaccine was licensed.
1972, DDT was officially banned.
1985, Goal set for polio elimination in the Americas.
1988, Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
1994, Polio was declared eliminated from the Americas. A three-year-old Peruvian boy, Luis Fermín, had the last registered case there.
1997, Mass vaccination efforts in India.
1998, Polio immunization efforts in Sudan.
2002, Polio eliminated in Europe. W.H.O. declared polio eliminated in Europe.
2014, Southeast Asian region polio-free.
2016, Type II Oral Polio vaccine discontinued.
2022, Vaccine-Derived Polio is found in London's wastewater surveillance samples.
2022, Polio returns to New York City.
