World Health Crises: Polio
(see also World Health Crises)
Basics
When WHO polio eradication campaign began in 1988, 330,000 cases a year were reported in 125 countries. In first half of 2004, 333 cases reported in 13 countries. But polio is endemic (meaning that the chain of transmission has not stopped within six to twelve months) still in Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Niger, Pakistan & especially Nigeria (the epicenter, with 257 cases in first half of 2004). As long as it exists anywhere, the virus can be transmitted anywhere.
On the Web: Articles
On the Web: Specialized Sites
Global Polio Eradication Initiative (WHO).
In the Library: Articles
In the Library: Non-Fiction Books
Black, Kathryn. In the Shadow of Polio: A Personal & Social History (Reading MA: Addison-Wesley, 1996).
Bruno, Richard L. The Polio Paradox: Uncovering the Hidden History of Polio to Understand & Treat "Post-Polio Syndrome" & Chronic Fatigue (NY: Warner, 2002).
Coughlin, Robert. The Coming Victory Over Polio (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1954).
Daniel, Thomas M. & Frederick C. Robbins (eds.) Polio (Rochester NY: U. of Rochester, 1997).
Davis, Fred. Passage Through Crisis: Polio Victims & Their Families (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1963).
Gould, Jean. A Good Fight: The Story of FDR's Conquest of Polio (NY: Dodd, Mead, 1960).
Gould, Tony. A Summer Plague: Polio & Its Survivors (New Haven: Yale, 1995).
Klein, Aaron E. Trial by Fury: The Polio Vaccine Controversy (NY: Scribner, 1972).
McPherson, Stephanie S. Jonas Salk: Conquering Polio (Minneapolis: Lerner, 2002).
Offitt, Paul A. The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Vaccine Crisis (New Haven: Yale, 2005).
Rogers, Naomi. Dirt & Disease: Polio before FDR (New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers, 1992).
Sass, Edmund J. with George Gottfried & Anthony Sorem (eds.) Polio's Legacy: An Oral History (Lanham MD: University Press of America, 1996).
Seavey, Nina Gilden; Jane S. Smith & Paul Wagner. A Paralyzing Fear: The Triumph over Polio in America (NY: TV Books, 1998).
Shell, Marc. Polio & Its Aftermath: The Paralysis of Culture (Cambridge MA: Harvard, 2005).
Smith, Jane S. Patenting the Sun: Polio & the Salk Vaccine (NY: Anchor, 1991).
Wilson, Daniel J. Living With Polio: The Epidemic & its Survivors (Chicago: U. of Chicago, 2005).
In the Library: Fiction
In the Library: For Young Readers
In the Library: Poetry
In the Library: Drama
In the Library: Photography
CD & Audio
Film & Video
"A Paralyzing Fear: The Story of Polio in America" [1998], dir. Nina Gilden Seavey, 89m. From PBS Home Video.