The 1940s Medicine and Health: Chronology

1940:     August 28 The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis sends aid to Indiana, where there is a massive poliomyelitis (polio) outbreak.

1940:     December An influenza epidemic begins in California and spreads to Oregon, Washington State, New Mexico, Arizona, and Idaho.

1941:      Clinical trials of penicillin begin.

1941:     March 25 The most serious measles epidemic in years breaks out along the East Coast and begins to spread westward across America.

1941:     March 27 Residents of New York are offered preventive medical care and treatment for $24 a year by the non-profit organization Group Health Association, Inc.

1941:     May 5 After successful trials, penicillin is unveiled to the public.

1941:     September A nationwide polio epidemic kills eighty-seven people.

1942:      The American Red Cross begins collecting blood to help battlefield casualties.

1942:      The Kenny method of treating polio by massage is hotly disputed within the medical profession.

1942:     June Promising progress is made toward developing a vaccine against whooping cough.

1942:     October 16 In Georgia, health officials call for all victims of sexually transmitted diseases to be kept in isolation.

1943:      The antibiotic streptomycin is discovered.

1943:     July A polio epidemic spreads through Texas, California, Washington State, Kansas, and New York.

1943:     September 8 The American Chemical Society announces the discovery of "Penicillin B." The new drug is ten times more powerful than standard penicillin.

1943:     November 3 The U.S. Census Bureau announces that 163,400 Americans died from cancer in 1942.

1943:     November 25 The Schenley Distillers Corporation develops a new and more efficient method of making penicillin.

1944:     March 3 The drug Benzedrene, a prescription amphetamine, is used by military pilots to keep them awake on long missions.

1944:     June 15 The American Medical Association (AMA) files a report criticizing the Kenny massage method of treating polio.

1944:     August 26 The New York State Hospital Commission announces the success of electroshock treatments in helping mental patients to lead normal lives.

1945:     February Penicillin that can be taken orally is introduced.

1945:     March 23 The U.S. Census Bureau announces that twice as many Americans have died of cancer in 1944 as in the year 1900.

1945:     May 23 Typhus patients are treated successfully with streptomycin for the first time.

1945:     December 16 A new sulfa drug, metachloride, proves successful in treating malaria.

1946:      The American Academy of Dental Medicine is founded.

1946:      The first synthetic penicillin is produced.

1946:     August 9 The U.S. Public Health Service announces that the country is in the grip of the worst polio epidemic since 1916.

1946:     October 27 Reported cases of syphilis increased by 42 percent in the twelve months ending June 30, 1946.

1947:     February 10 In a poll for the Planned Parenthood Federation, 97.8 percent of American doctors say they are in favor of birth control.

1947:     March 18 Children born in the aftermath of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, have an unusually high number of abnormalities, according to a report by the Atomic Bomb Casualties Commission.

1947:     July 19 The University of Illinois announces that it will soon begin the first large-scale production of BCG, a vaccine for tuberculosis.

1947:     October 3 The American Association of Science Workers states that bacteriological warfare is now the world's most important terror weapon.

1948:     May 3 At the University of Minnesota, the polio virus is isolated in concentrated form for the first time.

1948:     August 10 The American Cancer Society announces that $3.5 million will be spent on cancer research in the coming year.

1948:     October 18 In New York City, an experiment begins to see if fluoride prevents tooth decay. Fifty thousand children have their teeth coated with sodium fluoride.

1948:     December 20 Five nuclear scientists are found to be going blind because of their work with radioactive materials.

1949:     February 27 The American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute issue a report linking smoking with lung cancer.

1949:     August 12 The U.S. Public Health Service announces that the average life span of Americans has risen to 66.8 years, up from 65 years in 1939.