Jonas Salk is among the most venerated medical scientists of the century. Though his first words were reported to be "dirt, dirt," his early thoughts were not on studying germs but on going into law.

This was the reality for families before 1955, when Jonas Salk's polio vaccine offered a shield against this devastating disease. My own family history is intertwined with the scourge of polio.

There is still no cure for the disease. But at the peak of its devastation in the United States, Jonas Salk introduced a way to prevent it. This infectious viral disease attacks the nerve cells ...