Jonas Salk and the Polio Vaccine Essay example - 554 Words

Dr. Jonas Salk was an American medical researcher, physician, and virologist who developed the first safe and effective polio vaccine. Before this vaccine was created, polio vaccines usually contained live, weakened forms of the virus, but Salk developed a vaccine that contained an inactivated, dead form of polio, the first of its kind. Until the Salk vaccine was introduced on April 12, 1955, polio was considered the most frightening health problem in the United Sates. Just 3 years before the vaccine was released, almost 58,000 cases were reported, with 3,145 deaths and 21,269 paralyzed. Most of the victims were children, leaving them scarred for the rest of their lives, which, depending on how bad they were affected, wasn’t long. Because†¦show more content†¦He and a Dr. Thomas Francis Jr. eventually perfected a vaccine that was soon used on army bases. But Salk wanted position where he could direct his own lab, and he finally found one at the University Of Pittsburg h School Of Medicine, where he continued to research flu vaccines. It was at this point that he was approached by the director of research at the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, a project established by FDR to eradicate polio. The director asked Salk if he wanted to join the project, and he quickly accepted the offer. Poliomyelitis, or polio, was a viral disease that had researchers baffled for years. It would enter the body orally, establish itself in the intestines, and affect the nerves, then travelled to the brain, usually leading to partial or full paralysis. It was the most serious public health problem of postwar America, claiming more victims than any other disease of that time. Yet it did not gain national attention until FDR was diagnosed in 1921. At the age of 39, older than most diagnosed with the disease, Roosevelt was left with severe paralysis, and spent most of his presidency in a wheelchair. When Salk first joined the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) in 1948, he was tasked with researching and confirming how many types of polio there were. To help him, the NFIP paid for additional space, equipment, and researchers in his lab. The NFIP was formed in 1938,Show MoreRelatedThe Polio Vaccine Through The Eyes Of Its Creator1218 Words   |  5 Pagesan informative interview with Jonas Salk. It told the story of the creation of the polio vaccine through the eyes of its creator. Salk also describes his childhood and the events that lead up to his medical breakthrough. Latour, Bruno , Steve Woolgar, and Jonas Salk. Introduction. Laboratory Life. 1986.Reprint. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986. 11. Print. It showed the way that Jonas Salk studied polio and how he came to the conclusion that the vaccine was correct. He also taught thatRead MoreThe Polio Vaccine Essay1082 Words   |  5 PagesThe Polio Vaccine The discovery of the polio vaccine was an important medical and scientific breakthrough because it saved many lives since the 1950s. In the summer of 1916 the great polio epidemic struck the United states. By the 1950s hundreds of thousands of people had been struck by the poliomyelitis. The highest number of cases occurred in 1953 with over 50,000 people infected with the virus. When hygienic conditions were poor polio attacked infants. The disease was spread by contaminatedRead MorePolio Vaccine : An Infectious Disease1028 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"A 1916 Polio epidemic in the United States killed 6,000 people and paralyzed 27,000 more† (â€Å"Polio Vaccine†). This lead to the creation of the polio vaccine that has helped to prevent polio for a very long time. The IPV and OPV vaccines played a huge role in all of this. Jonas Salk, who created the IPV vaccine and Albert Sabin, who created the OPV vaccine saved millions of people all around the world from polio (Petersen, Jennifer B). The IPV and OPV polio vaccine helped eliminate polio from theRead MoreThe Epidemic Of The Polio Virus1639 Words   |  7 Pagesthe deadly polio virus plaguing America. From 1937 to 1952, known cases of Americans contracting polio skyrocketed from ten thousand to a staggering figure of roughly fifty-seven thousand cases. Of those cases within that time peri od, approximately one thousand five hundred deaths as a result of polio were recorded. In the year 1953, The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis provided the scientist Dr. Jonas Salk with the tools necessary to research, and develop a working vaccine to combatRead MoreAnalysis Of Jonas Salk And The Conquest Of Polio2454 Words   |  10 PagesSection One: Critical Summary over Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio: Jeffrey Kluger is a number one New York Times bestseller for his coauthoring of Apollo 13, but Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio, much like the name suggests, is the story of Jonas Salk and his great contribution to society with the polio vaccine. Kluger walks through Jonas Salk’s life starting with his father and mother, what they did, how they lived, and where they were from. KlugerRead MorePolio Is An Incapacitating And Potentially Fatal Infectious Virus1378 Words   |  6 PagesWhat is Polio? Poliomyelitis, commonly referred to as Polio, is an incapacitating and potentially fatal, infectious virus. Although it is rare to see someone suffering from the disease, in some countries, such as Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, the virus still exists. (Kids Health 1) Before the first vaccine was created, Polio was a threat to all Americans across the nation. The dangerous virus attacked people from all age ranges and left permanent damage on all of its victims. Luckily, at theRead MoreThe Discovery Of The Polio Vaccine1963 Words   |  8 Pagesdiscovery of the Polio vaccine will be discussed and broken down into deeper thought on why and how it was discovered. Poliomyelitis is an infectious disease that reached epidemic levels in the mid twentieth century. People that were unfortunate to receive this disease faced hardships including fevers, sore throat and vomiting(Allaby). These are just symptoms but Polio can be a vicious disease leaving their patients paralyzed. The majority of people who are diagnosed with Polio don’t get paralyzedRead MoreThe Rampage of Polio2713 Words   |  11 PagesHitler, and they were afraid of polio. A disease as indiscriminate as a nuclear bomb, it struck young and old, rich and poor, white and black. It caused fear and hysteria, confusion and anger, paralysis, and even death. By this time the United States had endured smallpox, cholera, yellow fever, and tuberculosis; but it had nev er experienced a wide-spread epidemic of a disease that seemed to specifically target children before the twentieth century. Although polio effects people of all agesRead MoreEssay on Polio Vaccine633 Words   |  3 Pages(shortened to polio) has been around for thousands of years, and there is still no cure, but at the peak of its devastation in the United States, Dr. Jonas Salk introduced a way to prevent it. Polio attacks the nerve cells and sometimes the central nervous system, causing muscle wasting, paralysis, and even death. The disease, whose symptoms are flu like, stuck mostly children, and in the first half of the 20th century the epidemics of polio were becoming more devastating. Salk, while workingRead MoreThe Conquest of Polio, a Story of Rivalry and Success Essay2072 Words   |  9 PagesAs recently at the 1950s, polio was a common disease in the United States. nbsp;It was first detected as early as 1789 when doctors recorded small outbreaks of an odd disease accompanied by fever, paralysis and a tendency to attack children. nbsp;It wasnt until the summer of 1916, however, that the public began to pay attention. nbsp;Twenty-seven thousand people were paralyzed that summer from polio, with most of the victims being children. nbsp;This is why the disease was called infantile