Warning: Some images are graphic. This library includes subject matter that might be unsuitable for children. Viewing discretion is advised.
We have made these photos available for many vaccine-preventable diseases as an added resource. We list them separately from each disease’s main page. Learn more about polio.
Copyright Restrictions: Photos with a copyright may not be used without permission from the source listed with the photo. All others may be used for displays, brochures, posters, and presentations, and please credit the source listed.
Two children with polio in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kisangani.
Courtesy of the World Health Organization
Two children with polio at the Cheshire Home for Handicapped Children, Menagesha, 25 Km from Addis Ababa.
Courtesy of the World Health Organization
Children with polio in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Courtesy of the World Health Organization
Polio has taken a visible toll in countries like Sierra Leone.
Courtesy of the World Health Organization
This child is one of a set of twins, both paralysed by polio, living in the Sibiti forest, Congo.
Courtesy of the World Health Organization (Photo by S. Torfinn)
A young woman with polio in a wheelchair.
Courtesy of the World Health Organization
The wild poliovirus usually paralyses children under five years old.
Courtesy of the World Health Organization
Boy with polio, Menagesha, at the Cheshire Home for Handicapped Children.
Courtesy of the World Health Organization
A boy paralyzed from polio infection.
Courtesy of the World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe
A young boy with polio using handmade braces, in Kenya.
Courtesy of Remote Medicine
Children at the Cheshire Home for Handicapped Children in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Courtesy of the World Health Organization
This patient sustained upper extremity paralysis due to polio caused by the poliovirus.
Courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Patients whose respiratory muscles were affected placed in an "iron lung" machine to enable them to breathe.
Courtesy of the World Health Organization
Negative stain image of the polio virus.
Courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Child with sequelae of polio with a quote from Dr. Harry Hull.
Courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Aerial view of a crowd in San Antonio, 1962, awaiting polio immunization.
Courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Images like this were used to encourage polio vaccination.
Courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Two children with polio receiving physical therapy.
Courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Patient in an iron lung during a Rhode Island polio epidemic 1960.
Courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Child with polio in during a Rhode Island polio epidemic 1960.
Courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Young man with a withered leg due to polio.
Courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Child with a severely deformed leg due to polio.
Courtesy of the World Health Organization
A hospital respiratory ward in Los Angeles, 1952.
Courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
