Polio

Polio was one of the most dreaded childhood diseases of the 20th Century in the United States. An epidemic in 1916 killed 6,000 people and left 27,000 more paralyzed. In the 1950's, parents refused to let their children go to movies or go swimming for fear of catching the disease.There are two types of polio vaccine: Inactivated (killed) polio vaccine (IPV), which is a shot; and live oral polio vaccine (OPV), which is a liquid that is swallowed.

The "March of Dimes" began in 1938 as a fund-raising campaign for polio. People were asked to send one dime directly to the White House to help fight the disease. In the first 3 days, the White House received 230,000 dimes. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose profile is now on the dime, was himself paralyzed by polio.