Who developed the polio vaccine?

Poliomyelitis is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. It affects nerves and sometimes leads to muscle weakness and partial or complete paralysis. Polio vaccines are used to prevent this terrible disease. The polio vaccine is sometimes called the Salk vaccine in the name of its developer, Jonas Salk, who was an American virologist born in New York. He introduced his vaccine in 1955 and it became one of the greatest discoveries in the history of medicine and virology.

Before the first successful polio vaccine the disease was considered one of the most frightening public health problems on the planet. After the WWII the annual epidemics were increasingly devastating. In 1952 3,145 people died from poliomyelitis and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis. Most of the victims were children (that's why the disease is also called infantile paralysis). Salk's breakthrough brought hope to the thousands of people, and the scientists predicted the complete eradication of the disease by 2018. Anyway, several outbreaks of the disease occurred in 2013 and 2014 in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.