I am an American and I remember being in school and hearing stories of polio cases where children lost the use of their limbs and even diaphragm because of polio and I always wondered if Europe had the same issue before the vaccine was invented. I tried Google and could not find a decent answer.
It seems that polio outbreaks in the 20th century were not isolated to the United States. I have read, though, that the age in which kids contracted polio was increasing on account of better hygiene and sanitation. For thousands of years, polio has mostly affected infants, but the epidemics in the 20th century mostly affected older children. Anyway, I found some interesting info on this that might give you more info:
http://www.unicef.org/newsline/poliopkeuromilestones.htm
You might also want to check out these sources if you can:
Paul, J. R. 1971. A History of Poliomyelitis. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Robbins, F. C. 1999. "The History of Polio Vaccine Development." In Vaccines, 3rd edition, ed. S. A. Plotkin and W. A. Orenstein. Philadelphia: Saunders.