This book is a world geography of poliomyelitis from antiquity to the present day. In the twentieth century, poliomyelitis emerged to become a global crippler and killer. But with the development of preventive vaccines in the 1950s poliomyelitis looks set to be the first disease since smallpox in 1979 to be eliminated by direct human intervention.

Matthew Smallman-Raynor and Andrew Cliff are Professors of Geography at Nottingham and Cambridge Universities. With Peter Haggett at the University of Bristol, they have led an interdisciplinary research group for over a quarter of a century which has worked upon the spatial diffusion of infectious diseases. Special focuses for the group have been reconstructing the processes by which diseases move from one geographical region to another, understanding the causes of epidemic waxing and waning in time and space, and the demographic consequences of disease. Together, they have written twenty research monographs and 100 scientific papers on these topics.

• 1: Introduction


• 2: The Nature of Poliomyelitis


• 3: The Pre-epidemic History of Poliomyelitis (Antiquity to AD 1880)


• Part I


• Epidemic Emergence, 1881-1920: Early Centres and Localized Outbreaks


• 4: Europe


• 5: New Worlds


• Part II


• Global Expansion, 1921-55: Epidemic Poliomyelitis in the Pre-vaccine Era


• Introduction to Part II


• 6: Epidemic Trends: An International Perspective


• 7: Mainland North America


• 8: Mainland Europe


• 9: Islands


• Part III


• Global Retreat, 1955-1988: Returning Localized Outbreaks


• Introduction to Part III


• 10: Vaccination: The United States Campaigns


• 11: Vaccination in the Rest of the World


• Part IV


• Global Eradication


• Introduction to Part IV


• 12: The Global Poliomyelitis Eradication Initiative (1988-2008 and Beyond)