Polio posed a serious threat to children every summer during the first half of the twentieth century. By the 1940s, virologist and medical researchers across the Western world were being funded to find the cause and develop a vaccine.
We know now, polio is a highly infectious viral infection that spreads from the intestines, attacks the brain and spinal cord and can cause paralysis, muscle wastage and death. Until 1950s this knowledge was lacking and the epidemics of 30s, 40s and 50s created an urgency in finding a solution.
One researcher working on a vaccine was Dr. Jonas Edward Salk. Born in New York City, Jonas was awarded a degree in chemistry from City College, New York, and in 1939, received his medical degree from New York University Medical School.
Dr. Salk went on to work as a physician-scientist with Thomas Francis at the University of Michigan in 1941. (Thomas Francis was renowned for his research on influenza viruses and their various strains.)
At the time, the leading theory in vaccine development was that the virus used must be attenuated — meaning it had to be weakened enough to not cause illness. Scientists were divided on whether a killed virus could stimulate an immune response. Building on the work of other scientists, Dr. Salk announced on 26 March 1953 he had successfully tested a polio vaccine on himself and his family.
In 1954 and 1955, large-scale community trials were conducted, and the Salk vaccine was shown to be highly effective in preventing polio among children. Children who received the vaccine had significantly lower rates of symptomatic polio compared to those who received a placebo. The success of these trials was celebrated worldwide, offering hope that polio, a disease that had caused so much fear and suffering, could finally be defeated.
In May 1955 Salk came to the UK for a congress of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health and during his visit he visited a polio vaccination centre in London and witnessed the vaccine given to a young woman who had decided to have the vaccination after she had seen two of her friends suffer from the crippling disease, poliomyelitis.
After the success of the polio vaccine, Dr. Salk established the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in 1963. He continued to dedicate his life to researching vaccines, including one for HIV, the virus responsible for AIDS. His groundbreaking work earned him numerous awards and honours. Dr. Salk passed away in 1995 at the age of 80.
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