Uh, I don't know. Pick one. Polio?
Its an excellent example
Small localized paralytic polio
epidemics began to appear in Europe and the United States around 1900.
[131] Outbreaks reached
pandemic proportions in Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand during the first half of the 20th century. By 1950 the peak age incidence of paralytic poliomyelitis in the United States had shifted from infants to children aged five to nine years, when the risk of paralysis is greater; about one-third of the cases were reported in persons over 15 years of age.
[132] Accordingly, the rate of paralysis and death due to polio infection also increased during this time.
[131] In the United States, the 1952 polio epidemic became the worst outbreak in the nation's history. Of nearly 58,000 cases reported that year 3,145 died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis.
The polio epidemics not only altered the lives of those who survived them, but also brought profound cultural changes, spurring
grassroots fund-raising campaigns that would revolutionize medical
philanthropy, and giving rise to the modern field of
rehabilitation therapy. As one of the largest disabled groups in the world, polio survivors also helped to advance the modern
disability rights movement through campaigns for the social and civil rights of the
disabled. The World Health Organization estimates that there are 10 to 20 million polio survivors worldwide.
[136] In 1977 there were 254,000 persons living in the United States who had been paralyzed by polio.
[137] According to doctors and local polio support groups, some 40,000 polio survivors with varying degrees of paralysis live in Germany, 30,000 in Japan, 24,000 in France, 16,000 in Australia, 12,000 in Canada and 12,000 in the United Kingdom.
World Polio Day (24 October) was established by
Rotary International to commemorate the birth of
Jonas Salk, who led the first team to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis. Use of this inactivated poliovirus vaccine and subsequent widespread use of the oral poliovirus vaccine developed by
Albert Sabin led to establishment of the
Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in 1988. Since then, GPEI has reduced polio worldwide by 99 percent
Ninety nine percent........
The needs of the many are well served by the adverse reactions of the tiny tiny few.
