On This Day in Science History - October 28 - Jonas Salk and the March of Dimes

October 28^th is Jonas Salk's birthday. Salk was an American physician who developed the first safe and effective polio vaccine. For much of the 20th century, polio was a major epidemic, killing or paralyzing its victims, mostly children. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis to raise funds to fight the disease and care for those who had it. The Foundation began a national radio program effort asking for just a dime from each family. The "March of Dimes" was an annual drive for funds and eventually the Foundation renamed itself. In 1955 Jonas Salk, one of the researchers funded by the March of Dimes, announced a safe vaccine against the virus. After the success of the vaccine, the March of Dimes changed its focus to infant health and the prevention of birth defects.

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