3-26-1953

[953 nut 51,775]

                             3-26-1953

         Salk announces polio vaccine

On March 26, 1953, American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announces on a national radio show that he has successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio. In 1952–an epidemic year for polio–there were 58,000 new cases reported in the United States, and more than 3,000 died from the disease. For promising eventually to eradicate the disease, which is known as “infant paralysis” because it mainly affects children, Dr. Salk was celebrated as the great doctor-benefactor of his time.

Polio, a disease that has affected humanity throughout recorded history, attacks the nervous system and can cause varying degrees of paralysis. Since the virus is easily transmitted, epidemics were commonplace in the first decades of the 20th century. The first major polio epidemic in the United States occurred in Vermont in the summer of 1894, and by the 20th century thousands were affected every year. In the first decades of the 20th century, treatments were limited to quarantines and the infamous “iron lung,” a metal coffin-like contraption that aided respiration. Although children, and especially infants, were among the worst affected, adults were also often afflicted, including future president Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in 1921 was stricken with polio at the age of 39 and was left partially paralyzed. Roosevelt later transformed his estate in Warm Springs, Georgia, into a recovery retreat for polio victims and was instrumental in raising funds for polio-related research and the treatment of polio patients.

Salk, born in New York City in 1914, first conducted research on viruses in the 1930s when he was a medical student at New York University, and during World War II helped develop flu vaccines. In 1947, he became head of a research laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh and in 1948 was awarded a grant to study the polio virus and develop a possible vaccine. By 1950, he had an early version of his polio vaccine.

Salk’s procedure, first attempted unsuccessfully by American Maurice Brodie in the 1930s, was to kill several strains of the virus and then inject the benign viruses into a healthy person’s bloodstream. The person’s immune system would then create antibodies designed to resist future exposure to poliomyelitis. Salk conducted the first human trials on former polio patients and on himself and his family, and by 1953 was ready to announce his findings. This occurred on the CBS national radio network on the evening of March 25 and two days later in an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Salk became an immediate celebrity.

In 1954, clinical trials using the Salk vaccine and a placebo began on nearly two million American schoolchildren. In April 1955, it was announced that the vaccine was effective and safe, and a nationwide inoculation campaign began. New polio cases dropped to under 6,000 in 1957, the first year after the vaccine was widely available. In 1962, an oral vaccine developed by Polish-American researcher Albert Sabin became available, greatly facilitating distribution of the polio vaccine. Today, there are just a handful of polio cases in the United States every year, and most of these are “imported” by Americans from developing nations where polio is still a problem. Among other honors, Jonas Salk was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977. He died in La Jolla, California, in 1995.

[Ed Kennell 35,848]

Makes me wonder when a cancer cure will share the same headlines.   We can only hope and pray to see it soon.

[JC 1965 1,528]

I'm with you on that Ed.   

[roadapples 6,981]

I remember getting those polio shots in grade school....I hated needles..

[953 nut 51,775]

21 minutes ago, roadapples said:

I hated needles.

I was one of the lucky ones who got the placebo during the first test, then had to go through the entire series again.    Now some of the "smarter" parents are opting out of immunizations for their children and polio and others are becoming a threat again.  

[wallfish 15,937]

Salk was definitely one of the true humanitarians!

 

9 hours ago, Ed Kennell said:

Makes me wonder when a cancer cure will share the same headlines.   We can only hope and pray to see it soon.

 

Unfortunately treating cancer symptoms is a huge money maker. They can "feel good" about doing it because of the premise they're helping people, but the "feel good" will soon be gone if they have to charge the same amount for the cure. Plus there will be less business and less repeat business so that also ups the cost they would need just to break even with the amount they are raking in now. ANY company would certainly be raked over the coals for trying to charge that huge amount which only the very wealthy would be able to afford. They certainly wouldn't "feel good" about having to let the middle class and the poor fend for themselves because those people can't afford to be cured. In short, there's no money in it!

 How about this guy, Martin Shkreli CEO of the company that recently bought the rights to Daraprim, and raised the cost 5000% overnight. Just watch this greedy sniveling jerk with his little smug a$$ smirks and how he explains the reasons why. And this is not his first rodeo either. This is the mentality of the people in charge of modern pharmaceutical medicine.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/generic-drug-price-increases-5000-percent-overnight/

 That's one downfall of Capitalism, once you add widespread greed with lack of any morality into it, it's just about the profits.

Sorry for the rant but I have lost quite a few family members to cancer and saw first hand how they seem to try and get as much as they can from people before it's too late.

[roadapples 6,981]

Unfortunately good health isn`t good business.. Sad..