Inventors: Dr. Jonas Salk: created the first vaccine, used killed virus
Albert Bruce Sabin: created the second vaccine, used live virus

Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a viral disease that may affect the nervous system, and cause paralysis. The disease mostly affects children, but adults, such as Franklin Roosevelt, could catch polio as well.
Jonas Salk was the first to develop a vaccine for polio. His method used a virus that had been killed, which was then injected into the bloodstream. This caused the body to produce antibodies for the polio antigen, giving immunity to a later infection. The vaccine was tested in 1954 in the United States and Canada. Although a poorly prepared batch of the vaccine caused the death of 10 people, overall the test was successful. It significantly reduced the number of polio cases per year, with a 70% to 90% prevention rate.
There were some problems with the vaccine, however. It had to be injected, and did not provide lifelong immunity, so booster shots were required. Albert Sabin, who had also been working on a vaccine, developed a method for vaccination using a weaker strain of the virus. This form of the vaccine could be taken orally and provided lifelong immunity.
Both vaccines had enormous effects on preventing polio. For example in 1960 there were 2,525 polio cases, which were reduced to 61 by 1965, later the occurrence of the disease was further reduced to an average of 8 per year. Ironically, the incidence of polio in the United States has become so low, that most cases of polio are now caused by the vaccine itself.

*Pictures from http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/jwb/AP/TLdocs/Timeline.htm and http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/images/, respectively

Sources:
Index of /Research/vmd/images. 12 Oct. 2002. <http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/
vmd/images/>

Okonek, Bonnie A. Maybury, and Linda Morgansteinn (editor). Development of Polio Vaccines. 12 Oct 2003. <http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/CC/
polio.html>

Timeline of U.S. History. 12 Oct 2003. <http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/jwb/
AP/TLdocs/Timeline.htm>

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