|
| |
Polio Fifty Years After the Vaccine
Click the links below to jump to the article reprint of
interest to you:
Rotary's
Polio Exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution
The
Story of the Polio Vaccine
By HOWARD MARKEL, M.D.
Published: April 12, 2005 in the
New York Times
 or
much of the first half of the 20th century, polio conjured up every parent's
worst nightmare: children who could not walk without steel braces; others
imprisoned in large tank respirators called iron lungs, gasping for every
breath. Still others died.
But on April 12, 1955, Americans learned that Dr. Jonas Salk
had developed a safe and effective vaccine against polio. Thanks to successful
immunization programs in the decades since, parents today can rest easy knowing
that polio is preventable and rare.
Photo: Polio immunization, 1955.
Marking the 50th anniversary of the vaccine are two new books and several
exhibits that re-examine this remarkable chapter in the history of American
medicine, including celebrations at the University of Michigan, where the
vaccine trial was conducted and its efficacy was announced 50 years ago and at
the University of Pittsburgh, where Salk did his research.
In "Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio,"
published by Putnam, Jeffrey Kluger writes about how Salk became an
international celebrity. Mr. Kluger, a senior writer for Time, describes the
aggressive, often bitter rivalry between Salk and another virologist, Dr. Albert
Sabin.
Even though Salk's vaccine, an injection made from killed virus, was
developed first and is the vaccine most often used in the United States today,
it was derided by many virologists as a stopgap measure that was superseded by
Dr. Sabin's oral vaccine, made from live-attenuated virus and introduced in
1963.j
The first major American epidemic of polio, or infantile paralysis, began in
June 1916. New York was hit especially hard, with more than 9,000 cases and
2,343 deaths. Jonas Salk was 20 months old at the time and, as Mr. Kluger
recounts, his mother, Dora, kept him and their Manhattan apartment scrupulously
clean, in the belief that doing so would protect against polio.
In the four decades that followed, doctors struggled to prevent and treat the
mysterious disease. During epidemics, which typically occurred in the summer,
movie theaters and swimming pools closed and public libraries disinfected their
collections.
In "Polio: An American Story," published by Oxford University
Press, David Oshinsky, a historian at the University of Texas, describes how the
National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis revolutionized the enterprise of
medical research in the United States. The foundation started long-term research
grants, as well as indirect financing to support universities where researchers
were based, and required those who received its grants to share their ideas with
other scientists - all essential elements of medical research today.
Polio was not limited to children, though they were the epidemiological focal
point of the disease and the selling point of the crusade for a cure. The most
famous adult polio patient was President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was infected
at 39 and used a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
In 1937, Roosevelt and his former law partner, Basil O'Connor, started the
infantile paralysis foundation or, as it came to be known, the March of Dimes,
to conquer and treat polio. The foundation became the gold standard for
philanthropies devoted to eliminating diseases, and it pioneered fund-raising
techniques like national publicity campaigns, celebrity endorsements and
donation canisters, featuring attractive children.
In his book, Mr. Oshinsky notes that the public's fear of polio often
outweighed its actual threat. In many of the worst epidemics in this country,
30,000 people or fewer contracted the disease, a far lower number than the
annual incidence of other childhood killers now contained by vaccines, like
measles, diphtheria and whooping cough.
Residents of Protection, Kan., lined up at the high school for
polio vaccinations in April 1957.
It was the first community anywhere to have
everyone under 40 immunized.
Eighteen years passed between the establishment of the foundation and the
completion of the complex trial on 1.8 million children that confirmed Salk's
vaccine as safe and effective. For many, the presumed conquest of polio helped
create the expectation that well-financed, well-executed medical science could
cure all that ails us.
Sadly, polio cannot yet be relegated to history. Last year, 1,263 cases were
diagnosed, primarily in the polio-endemic nations of Nigeria, India, Pakistan,
Niger, Afghanistan and Egypt. Polio is mainly transmitted by fecal-oral contact;
about 1 infection in 200 leads to irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs.
In December 2004, a case was discovered in Mecca a few weeks before its
annual pilgrimage, which draws two million Muslims. As a result, public health
officials have increased surveillance and immunization efforts to prevent a
serious outbreak. The World Health Organization hopes to eradicate polio
globally by the end of this year.
Dr. Howard Markel, a professor of pediatrics and the history of medicine
at the University of Michigan, is the author of "When Germs Travel."
On 12 April, Rotarians joined with representatives from the global health
community and governments and members of the public to mark the 50th anniversary
of the declaration of Dr. Jonas Salk's vaccine as safe and effective.
 The
previous day, RI President Glenn
Estess Sr. attended the opening of a polio exhibition at the Smithsonian
National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the
anniversary. The exhibition, "Whatever
Happened to Polio?" tells the story of the impact of polio on the
United States and how medical science and popular support channeled through the
nonprofit organization March of Dimes triumphed over the dreaded disease.
"As a child, I remember seeing the swimming pools closed and reading in
the papers about hospitals filled with children who had been robbed of the
simple gift of walking, or encased in iron lungs," said Estess.
"Salk's achievement freed millions of families from this daily fear. Yet,
many in the developed world don't realize that this preventable disease still
threatens children today. "
The Salk vaccine, together with the oral polio vaccine developed later by Dr.
Albert Sabin, opened the door to an organized, scientific assault on this
paralyzing and sometimes fatal disease. As a result, polio quickly vanished from
the developed world.
Speaking at the opening of the Smithsonian exhibition, Estess remarked that
because polio has been eradicated in most parts of the world, there is talk in
some quarters that the disease is too small a threat to warrant any further
financial support.
"Would it be better to use our resources to fight diseases that cause
more suffering now?" he asked. "Not if it means opening up the
possibility of going back to where we were 50 years ago. Now is the time, more
than ever, to make sure that the wild poliovirus can never make a comeback. And
that means eliminating it forever."
Other attendees of the opening included National Chair of the 50th
Anniversary of the Salk Vaccine Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, who also is a trustee of
the March of Dimes and a granddaughter of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
founder of the March of Dimes; Brent Glass, director of the National Museum of
American History; Bruce R. Stevenson, vice president for academic affairs at the
Salk Institute; Sheila P. Burke, deputy secretary and CEO of the Smithsonian;
and International PolioPlus Committee Chair William T. Sergeant.
When Rotary launched the PolioPlus
program in 1985, polio infected an estimated 350,000 children in 125
countries, annually. Today, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, led by
Rotary and its partners at the World Health Organization, US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, and UNICEF, has reduced polio cases worldwide by over 99
percent with 1,997 cases reported in 2006. Today, there are six polio-endemic
countries-Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Niger, Afghanistan, and Egypt — and six
countries where transmission has been re-established: the Sudan, Central African
Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Chad, Burkina Faso, and Mali.
|
The Rotary Club of Jenkintown has been dedicated to
"Service Above Self"
since 1924