Our world to this day has been impacted so much by many different heros of all different types. One such hero is Jonas Salk, the creator of the vaccines for polio and influenza. Salk became a cultivator of modern medicine by creating a vaccine that saved countless lives without the benefit of modern technology.
Jonas Salk was born in 1914, a time in which childhood disease and illness was great and commonly led to death. He grew up into a wealthy family and was the first of his siblings to graduate college. Salk went to college and intended study law but became interested in medical science. There were no known cures for major illnesses such as influenza and polio. In 1939, Salk became a scientist physician and a short time later began conducting research on cures for major illnesses, which later led to a great amount of success.
In 1942, Salk was first called on to begin researching and conducting experiments on an illness called influenza, also known as the flu. Influenza is a disease that is highly contagious and almost like a common cold but more severe. It usually affects the respiratory system and left untreated can lead to death. This disease was very
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Salk used a vaccine that was called a non-infectious or, “ a killed virus” vaccine. Jonas’s method was called tissue-culture. Tissue-culture was the process of injecting a child or adult with the virus and attempting to come up with a way to deactivate the virus, without harming or injuring the patient in the process. Although technology has taken over, Salk found a way to cure diseases without using technology. He was able to find a cure in less than 5 years which successfully worked. Salk tested the cure out on his wife, and their 3 sons. The amount of polio cases dramatically dropped from 28,985 in 1955 to 5,894 in 1957. He had a huge impact on our worlds death rates. Soon after his research for Aids, Salk died, but his method of vaccinations
He also focused on the work done by Isabel Morgan and her contributions to develop the polio vaccine and achieved success about the creation of a killed virus vaccine which worked on monkeys, but she decided to take care of her family rather than developing the vaccine further. David M Oshinsky author of Polio An American story believes and also stated that Morgan could have beaten Salk’s if she continued her research she was two years advanced when compared to the Salk’s vaccine.
For long before the 1918 pandemic, doctors had been trying to isolate the microorganism that causes influenza. In 1892, one man, Dr. Friedrich Johann Pfeiffer, believed he had the answer. His discovery, Pfeiffer’s
His invention of vaccination against smallpox was the medical breakthrough that saved the
In addition to health-related advances, such as the artificial heart valve, DNA structure decay, penicillin, and antibiotics. As well, we can not forget the start of the fight with cancer by the memorable world’s first cancer treatment with Cobalt-60 radiation. Although, new surgical procedures were introduced like the first successful kidney transplant and immunizations like typhoid, smallpox, tetanus, and polio vaccines. Polio epidemics had been occurring in the United States since 1916 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The viral disease struck even important figures as President Franklin Roosevelt that forced him to use a wheelchair and wear steel braces on his legs privately. “In the 1940s and 1950s, widespread polio epidemics terrorized the nation. Finally, research scientist Jonas Salk developed an injectable vaccine to prevent polio. In 1955 the vaccine became available to the general public. American scientist Albert Sabin then developed an oral vaccine for polio. Safer and more convenient than Salk’s injection vaccine, the Sabin vaccine became the most common method for preventing the disease. The threat of polio nearly disappeared and many more diseases no longer affected the American people” (Appleby, Joyce 2004). Therefore, the treatments and cures of several epidemics and diseases were an important factor that caused the Baby Boom due to the decrease in the children’s mortality rates and their possibility to reach adult
They view proteins created by infected cells, and are sent to other cells to start them making protective substances. Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is a very contagious disease caused by a virus infecting many part of our bodies including the reparatory tract. The influenza virus depending on the sternness usually includes: fever, cough, sore throat, headache, stuffy and running nose, muscle soreness and fatigue. It also can include vomiting, diarrhea, and nausea.
First of all, the name “Influenza” is derived from the Latin word for “influence”, and it is an infectious disease that is caused by the RNA viruses from the Orthomyxoviridae family:
Influenza, also known as the flu, is a contagious respiratory illness caused by the influenza virus that infects the nose, throat, and lungs (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
By 1951, Salk was able to assert with certainty that all polio viruses fell into one of three types, each having various strains; some of there were high infectious, others barely so. April 12, 1955 is when the vaccine was officially pronounced effective. He worked to fight several great scourges of the 20th century: influenza, multiple sclerosis, and
This research paper covers the basic history of influenza. It begins with its early history
Influenza, normally called “the flu”, the influenza virus causes an infection in the respiration tract. Even though the influenza virus can sometimes be compared with the common cold. It also can cause a more severe illness or death. During this past century, pandemics took place in 1918, 1957, and 1968, in all of these cases there where unfortunately many deaths. The “Spanish flu” in 1918, killed approximately half a million people in the United States alone. It killed around 20 million worldwide. The “Asian flu” in 1957, in the United States their 70,000 people died. In 1968 the “Hong-Kong flu” There where 34,000 deaths in the United
He was able to discover significant information about the antibodies that would latter lead to the finding of the vaccine( "Jonas Sank" ). If it was not for Jonas looking more into a specific point, the antibodies, he might not have been able to find the vaccine. Also, Jonas and some other researchers were able to create a "fake" version of polio that they were able to do tests on and help find the vaccine( "Bankston" ). If the researchers and Jonas were unable to create this "fake" version of polio, it would have taken much longer to find the vaccine. In addition to, Jonas first tested the vaccine on himself and his family to see if it would work(
The first attempt was a great success, but when they tried the same experiment again, the second pig remained perfectly healthy. Even after repeating this experiment dozens of times, a pig never became sick. While working with the yellow fever virus in his lab, Paul Lewis became infected with it and died. Robert Shope, even though distressed at the loss of his mentor, continued the influenza research, going back to the idea that the flu was caused by a virus. To act upon his theory, Shope filtered the mucus from sick pigs through a filter that allows only viruses through. He administered the virus to healthy pigs, but they did not become infected. Shope was beginning to believe that the cause of influenza is what is known as multifactorial, when a disease has no single cause. He postulated that perhaps the virus and the bacterium must work together to cause influenza. Professor Wilson Smith, Sir Christopher Andrewes, and Sir P. P. Laidlaw were investigating a pandemic in England at the same time as Shope was conducting his research. They began attempting to infect ferrets by giving them filtered human mucus that contained influenza virus; the first experiment was a resounding success. By collaborating together, these scientists learned that the cause of influenza was a virus. In the years after Richard Shope made his discovery, scientists continued to research influenza. In 1936, these scientists discovered that influenza can be grown in
Salk's previous work gave him the idea that a killed virus could in fact work when others thought it couldn't. To type the polio virus Salk infected monkeys with polio by injecting it into them or feeding it to them. If a monkey survived it built up antibodies to protect against the virus. The monkeys that survived were then given another type of virus to see if the same antibodies protected against the second type. If it did, it told Salk and his assistants that the two types were related. If it did not, that told Salk that they were not related. Eventually
Jonas salk invented the IPV vaccine. He was born October 28, 1914 to Russian parents. His parents had no education but wanted him to be successful so they encouraged him to work hard. “In 1939 he received a Medical Degree from New York University College of Medicine. In 1942 he joined one of his professors at the University of Michigan School of Public Health” (Petersen, Jennifer B). Jonas and his professor developed vaccine for influenza, which was Salk’s first invention. Then he traveled to Pittsburgh and became a Professor. There, he also became head of the virus research lab. He worked on a vaccine there. He used the killed virus to prevent people from contracting it. On July 2, 1952 he vaccinated 42 children who did not have polio and his trials succeeded. On April 12, 1955 Salk vaccinate 1.8 million children and right after he announced that his trial were effective and that the vaccine works (Petersen, Jennifer B).
Restate Thesis: Influenza is a common virus that is present in almost every part of the world. Studies show that influenza causes people to be prevalent to other diseases, especially respiratory diseases. According to an article on The Lancet, August 14th, 2009 by Jamieson, the virus caused the widespread outbreak of respiratory infection