Polio (also called poliomyelitis) is highly infectious and affects the nervous system, sometimes resulting in paralysis.

BBC: Polio strain spreads to China from Pakistan

In 1952 Jonas Salk (1914-1995) and Albert Sabin (1906-1993) raced to come up with a vaccine for poliomyelitis--a virus that causes inflammation of nerve cells in the spinal cord, which can cause paralysis, atrophy of the skeletal muscles and death.

FORBES: 85 Innovations 1939-1955