A Paralyzing FearA Paralyzing Fear

We live in an age of enormous optimism about the conquest of disease. We also live in an age of dread. There is still no way to immunize against the virus that causes AIDS. Diseases like the ebola virus migrate with appalling ease and speed. As we confront our fear of new diseases and struggle to find their causes and cure, we look to past experience to help us prepare for the future.

Not very long ago, ours was a nation held hostage to terror. A Paralyzing Fear is the story of this terror. For over 50 years, from the first large epidemic in 1916 to the introduction of the Salk vaccine in 1955 and the Sabin vaccine in 1961, polio struck rich and poor, educated and ignorant. The victims lived in crowded cities, isolated rural communities, and pristine suburbs. The only thing they had in common was the tragic fact that most were children.

This book is based on thousands of hours of research and illustrated by rare photographs from the March of Dimes archives, the New York Medical History Museum, the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation and the Tuskegee Institute.