The Polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective

In April 1955 the vaccine for Poliomyelitis developed by Dr. Jonas Salk was declared safe and effective. It had taken a whole year of trials and tests for the vaccine to be finally be authenticated and made available for use. Salks’s vaccine killed all strains of the polio virus. Poliomyeletis is caused by the polio virus, which enters the blood stream and can affect the central nervous system. It was a dreaded childhood disease in the early 19th century. The disease mostly affected children, leaving some with atrophic limbs leading to paralysis. South Africa is one of the countries that are virtually polio free as is most of the modern world, but isolated cases of the disease still occur in third world countries.