Paralytic Poliomyelitis in Massachusetts, 1959

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Abstract
IN 1959, 137 paralytic among 157 cases of poliomyelitis were reported in Massachusetts. This was the highest incidence of paralytic disease since inactivated-poliovirus vaccine became generally available, and the largest number in Massachusetts since 1955, when 2771 paralytic cases were reported.1 The cases in 1959 were characterized by several additional features of interest. Nearly all were attributed to Type 3 poliovirus whereas Type 1 was most frequently responsible in the remainder of the nation. Altogether, they comprised the largest Type 3 poliovirus outbreak in the United States during 1959.2 A remarkably high proportion, moreover, occurred in persons who had received . . .