Polio

I just finished the book Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky.  I really enjoyed learning more about this devastating disease. Since I was born after the vaccine for polio was developed, I didn't live through the fear that surrounded this dreaded disease. 

There were many small steps forward in the understanding of polio and how it affected the body.  For a while, it was thought that the virus entered the nose and went straight to the nervous system.  Then there was an epidemic in a certain county and they decided to take blood samples of every person who ended up in the hospital with it.  One hundred and eleven samples were taken, and only one showed any polio!  That was such a surprise.  After more investigation, it was discovered that the one sample was from a girl who was in the beginning stages of the disease, and was only in the hospital because of the epidemic.  The body makes antibodies to polio quite quickly and moves on to other areas of the body.  So, a vaccine would be useful as the polio did go through the blood.

Then there was the big debate whether or not to use a killed-virus or live-virus vaccine.  The two opposing sides were led by Jonas Salk (killed-virus) and Albert Sabin (live-virus).  Jonas Salk was the first to develop the vaccine, and its field trial was the biggest ever in the nation.  It is administered by injection.  The year was 1955 and more than 1.8 million children were involved.  It took a year to compile the data, and it was then deemed a success.

Famous Salk quote: When he was asked in a televised interview who owned the patent to the vaccine, Salk replied: "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"

Sabin was publicly hostile towards Salk and the killed-virus vaccine.  After a few years, and through various events, mostly political, Albert Sabin was able to test a live-virus in the USSR and then get it licensed in the United States.  It is an oral vaccine.  This has been the one used ever since.  It is very effective, though a small percentage of people who get the vaccination go on to get the disease from it.  In fact, polio has basically been wiped out in the US, except for these few people.

One tidbit of interesting trivia.  Jonas Salk divorced his wife, Donna, in 1968.  In 1970, he married Françoise Gilot, the former mistress of Pablo Picasso.

Now you've heard something interesting.