“Polio was once the most feared disease in the U.S.”

Charlotte Clarkson, 80, struggling to stand up while inside her home in Northeast Philadelphia earlier this fall. Clarkson is wheelchair-bound because of polio, which she got when she was 9, because the vaccine was not yet available in the U.S.

Heather Khalifa / Staff Photographer

“A new Annenberg poll shows most Americans know little about the virus, despite recent N.Y. outbreak.”

“Not that long ago, Philadelphia-area parents were so afraid of polio that they didn’t let their kids swim in public pools or splash in city fountains. Some kept their kids away from other children during warmer months when poliovirus was most active.

But today, the once-dreaded virus that killed thousands of children and paralyzed many more at its peak in the early 1950s is not on the minds of most Americans.”

Click button below for the full article by Wendy Ruderman for the Philadelphia Inquirer: