NPR begins series on polio eradication

NPR's "Shots" blog on Monday began a series of stories "reporting on the fight to eradicate the last few pockets of polio," which begins "with a look back at how the U.S. and the rest of the world wiped out the virus for good." The article examines the history of poliovirus in the U.S., how the disease became a national focus through the efforts of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, and the development of vaccines by Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin. Thanks to the success of the vaccines, both of which are still in use today, the WHO set a goal to eliminate polio in 1988, and the last case recorded in the Western hemisphere was in Peru in 1991, the blog reports, noting fewer than 200 cases of polio have been recorded worldwide so far this year (Beaubien, 10/15).