March of Dimes
Happy 80th anniversary to the March of Dimes!
The efforts initially led by Franklin Delano Roosevelt would lead to an almost immediate reversal of the polio crisis – from tens of thousands of new cases with children dying in the thousands, to less than a hundred cases and single-digit deaths within ten years. Unfortunately, FDR died in 1945 before he was able to see his efforts come to fruition, but the near eradication of the polio virus by Jonas Salk is considered one of the major achievements of the 20th century.
Dr. Salk tried to top himself with a vaccine against HIV, but as with a lot of things that surrounded the HIV and AIDS crisis in the 80’s and 90’s, it never quite got the same kind of attention or funding. And although he did develop a treatment, he would die in 1995 before finding the equivalent of what he had done for polio.
