A national center for treatment
As the 20th century progressed, outbreaks of polio became almost routine across the country. Polio appeared to spread most easily during the summer months, incurring mitigation methods like social distancing and closures of parks, pools and summer camps.
The major epidemics of the 1940s and 50s necessitated the training of more physical therapists across the country. Boston Children’s reputation as a center for innovative polio treatment grew nationally and internationally.
The Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, a polio treatment center founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1927, became the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis in 1938, sponsor of the well-known “March of Dimes” campaign for polio research development.
The last major polio epidemic in the US was in the summer of 1955. Massachusetts recorded over 2,000 cases of polio in the state in ten weeks of that summer. Boston Children's admitted over 650 patients for treatment related to polio.
