Polio: An American Story: The Crusade that Mobilized the Nation against the 20th Century's Most Feared Disease.

POLIO: AN AMERICAN STORY: The Crusade that Mobilized the Nation against the 20th Century's Most Feared Disease DAVID M. OSHINSKY

The polio epidemic of the 1950s filled the nation with dread. Americans tried to sanitize their homes and hands to avoid infections, which can be spread by contact with fecal matter. However, these measures failed to prevent the deaths of thousands of children. Images of iron lungs and children in braces served as the backdrop to a monumental search for a cure. The fight was spearheaded by organizations such as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, created by President Franklin Roosevelt, himself a polio victim. The foundation, famous for its highly successful charity campaign the March of Dimes, provided the bulk of funding for polio-patient care at the time. The book profiles the two famous scientists responsible for creating the polio vaccines that eventually halted the epidemic. Jonas Salk produced an injectable, killed-virus vaccine; Albert Sabin promoted an oral, live-virus vaccine. The two men headed camps that debated the choice, sometimes bitterly. Oshinsky points out that the Salk vaccine's controversial testing on mentally disabled children forged current views on the ethics of human trials. Despite some setbacks, by 1961 the number of new polio cases in the United States had dropped to below 1,000 annually. The fight against polio was a landmark in medicine, and anyone interested in American history or epidemiology would enjoy reading this account. Oxford, 2005, 342 p., b&w plates, hardcover, $30.00.