Century after first major USA polio epidemic, worldwide eradication eyed for 2016

By Jenny Wagner for the Bucks County Courier Times, Burlington County Times & The Intelligencer

It rained hard the day before Nick Hovemeyer came down with polio in the summer of 1945. All the kids in his Trenton, New Jersey, neighborhood were out in the street, splashing in the water, just being kids.

The next day, 8-year-old Hovemeyer developed a high fever and couldn’t stand or walk. His mother called an ambulance, but the crew we reluctant to take him.

“The walked in and took one look at me and said, ‘He’s got polio.’ And at that time, you were afraid to touch people because it was contagious,” recalled Hovemeyer, who is now 79.

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