04/13/2026
Twenty-four years after the first polio vaccine was declared safe and effective, Rotary started its first large-scale vaccination effort. Rotary's signature international service program, PolioPlus, was started in 1985. Today, polio is endemic in only two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Read more about Rotary's efforts to eradicate polio in the link in the comments below.
On this day in 1955, news announced at the University of Michigan brought relief to a nation and world besieged by the tiny virus that causes .
At a press conference in the Rackham Auditorium, the news broke that the Salk was safe and effective. It had been developed by a scientist who had trained at U-M, and tested in a nationwide clinical trial involving 1.8 million children that had been designed and led by University of Michigan School of Public Health professor Thomas Francis.
But just a few blocks away, at our University Hospital, patients paralyzed by polio struggled to breathe, dependent on iron lungs like the one seen in this photo, or chest respirators.
Other patients, whose leg or arm muscles and nerves had been attacked by the virus, got outfitted with custom-made braces created by our teams. They went through months of physical therapy, including in a special pool in the hospital basement, to try to regain strength and function.
For them, the vaccine came too late.
And even for those who didn't have severe cases, the virus left lasting impacts that caused symptoms decades later.
We still run a clinic for people with post-polio syndrome.
Today, thanks to multiple types of vaccines and the efforts of governments and nonprofits, wild polio cases have been eradicated from all but two countries around the world.
U-M research could help reduce the low but real risk of polio cases resulting from the weakened-virus vaccine used in developing countries.
But the risk of polio's resurgence in any nation, if vaccination rates fall, is very real.
Read more about the history of U-M polio treatment, vaccine research and post-polio care here: https://michmed.org/mDBmG
We also feature polio history and a polio brace in our medical history exhibit at the Museum on Main Street near 's Kerrytown - it's free and open every Saturday and Sunday 12-4 p.m. through August. Or you can book a private weekday tour. Details at
michmed.org/museum
📷 : U-M President Harlan Hatcher visiting the Poliomyelitis Respirator Center in University Hospital, 1954 - Bentley Historical Library
