Medicine: Polio's March

Unless there is a dramatic and unexpected reversal of trends, 1959 will be the worst year for poliomyelitis in the U.S. since 1955, when the Salk vaccine became generally available. With the peak not expected for another month, the U.S. Public Health Service reported last week that polio is almost twice as prevalent this year as last. Latest tallies showed 1,462 cases (956 paralytic) so far in 1959, v. 877 (only 437 paralytic) for the same period in 1958. In the latest week reported, the increase was especially alarming: 257 cases—a 50% jump over the previous week, and almost twice as...

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