History of Polio Vaccine

Polio (poliomyelitis), also known as infantile paralysis, is a viral infectious disease that can spread from person to person. It is a devastating disease whose virus enters the body through the nose or mouth and travels to the intestines, where it incubates. Polio has been a menace for human beings since ancient times, and its most extensive outbreak occurred in the first half of the 1900s before the invention of the polio vaccine.

Epidemic of 1952

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, spreading the knowledge about the basic hygiene methods had been encouraged enormously. For the first time, people began experiencing good health instead of simply hoping for it. However, the disease showed its full strength in the epidemic of 1952 which included 60,000 registered cases with more than 3,000 deaths in the United States alone. Children were most vulnerable to the disease. There was chaos in the country due to polio. Parents also panicked and kept their children away from schools and other public facilities. The public was becoming terrified of the disease which was crippling, paralyzing, and even killing people. Unfortunately, there was no vaccine that could stop or prevent the epidemic.

Who Invented the Polio Vaccine?

The understanding about the nature of polio grew through scrupulous research over the first half of the twentieth century, much of which was financed by the March of Dimes, a grassroot organization established with the help of President Roosevelt. The establishment decided to enlist the services of a well-thought-of investigator who was certain about finding a safe vaccination. Like many medical discoveries, there were chronological succession of findings by many scientists, which eventually led to an ultimate polio vaccine. But it was Dr. Jonas Edward Salk, who with the help of his colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, invented the polio vaccine.

Jonas Salk was born on October 28, 1914, in New York City. He had begun his medical research career by studying immunology. In 1947, while he was studying at the University of Pittsburgh, he began his research on the polio virus. In 1949, his research was greatly boosted, when a method of developing polio virus in cell culture was discovered. This discovery replaced the use of monkeys for research. Dr. Salk needed to find a way to work on the viruses so that they were less infectious, before using them in a vaccine. He first immunized volunteers that included himself, his wife, and three sons, with a polio vaccine made from this 'killed' virus. Everyone who was vaccinated with the test vaccine began producing antibodies to the disease, as a result no one fell ill. In 1952, he was the first to develop a successful vaccine using a combination of three types of viruses grown in monkey kidney cultures. He formulated a process using formalin, a chemical that inactivated the whole virus.

Testing of the Vaccine

Later in 1954, the vaccine was tested in the United States and some parts of Canada in a major way. The concept behind the trials was fairly new in medical history and the results were spectacular. Cases of polio were stunningly on a decline in the inoculated test groups. In 1955, the government quickly allowed permission for the vaccine to be circulated in the country and thus the vaccine was made available to the public.

Albert Sabin's Polio Vaccine

Few years later, Albert Sabin made a vaccine from "live" polio virus, which gained widespread use because it could be administered orally; while Salk's vaccine required an injection. Few new cases of polio were reported in the United States, which were actually caused by the "live" vaccine that was intended to prevent them. However, Salk's vaccine has recently begun to replace Sabin's (oral) vaccine in countries like the United States, where the polio virus has been eradicated.

Today, we can stand tall because of the vaccine invented by people like Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin who have made a great contribution in the world of medical science.