Polio in Alabama in 1941

As I often do, I was perusing some old issues of the Gadsden Times recently and in July and August 1941 issues I found several articles about polio cases in the state. Effective polio vaccines did not appear in the United States until Jonas Salk's in 1955 and Albert Sabin's in 1961, so what was the state and nation's status on the eve of America's entry into World War II? Polio [poliomyelitis] is a viral infection found only in humans. Although depicted in ancient art, the disease was not identified as distinct until 1789 by Michael Underwood, an English physician. The actual virus was identified by Austrian Karl Landsteiner in 1909. The highly infectious disease is spread through fecal-oral or oral-oral transmission. Most cases have mild symptoms, but permanent paralysis and death can occur. Major outbreaks began in Europe and the U.S. in the late 19th century. By the mid-20th century many cases of paralytic polio were affecting children age 5 to 9 years. In 1945 John Ed Robinson of…