A medical marvel is one of the items to go on display next month at the State Historical Building. This item made it into the list of “100 Creations of the 20th Century.”The longest-serving U-S President contracted it, and earlier this century thousands lived in fear that they would get polio, too. While Franklin Roosevelt lost most use of his legs, others who contracted the disease had to be entombed in a huge iron lung acting as a mechanical respirator. Jack Lufkin, curator of a new exhibit at the State Historical Building, will put an iron lung on display next month.Lufkin came up with the list of “A Few of Our Favorite Things” which make up the new exhibit, and he says polio vaccine should definitely be part of it because the vaccine really changed the world when it was invented in 1955.Iowa had some of the highest per capita polio rates in the United States right before its invention.
