Dr. Jonas Salk, who in the 1950's developed the first successful
vaccine against poliomyelitis, the viral illness that had
gripped a fearful nation with images of children doomed to death
or paralysis, died yesterday at Green Hospital in the La Jolla
section of San Diego. He was 80. The cause was heart failure,
said a spokeswoman for the Salk Institute, which Dr. Salk had
established to carry out medical research. As an intense
40-year-old scientist, Dr. Salk became a revered medical figure
upon the announcement in 1955 that his new polio vaccine was
safe and effective. It was a turning point in the fight against
a disease that condemned some victims to live the rest of their
lives in tanklike breathing machines called iron lungs and
placed sunny swimming holes off limits to children because of
parents' fears of contagion. The Salk vaccine changed medical
history, preventing many thousands of cases of crippling illness
and saving thousands of lives. In the United States, the vaccine
soon ended the yearly thre