On this day in history: The Polio vaccine declared safe
On 12 May 1955, the Polio vaccine, developed by American Dr. Jonas Salk, was declared safe and effective.
American medical researcher and virologist Dr. Jonas Salk, developed a vaccine for Poliomyelitis. In April 1955, it was declared safe and effective. It had taken a whole year of trials and tests for the vaccine to finally be authenticated and made available for use in South Africa. Salks’s vaccine killed all strains of the polio virus.
Poliomyeletis is caused by the polio virus, which enters the blood stream and can affect the central nervous system. In the early 19th century, it was a dreaded disease that mostly affected children, leaving some with atrophic limbs leading to paralysis. South Africa is one of the countries that are virtually polio free as is most of the modern world, but isolated cases of the disease still occur in third world countries.
Source: SA History
