Polio History

Polio an American story is a scholarly readable and informative book which covers the lives of many American eminent scientists who struggled a lot to eradicate polio. This book mainly focuses on the mid twentieth century where the people are very eager to find a vaccine to eradicate polio .This book also covers the entire topics from appearance of polio symptoms to post polio syndrome which shows the valuable thesis done by David M. Oshinsky.

Paralytic poliomyelitis, "polio", held a reign of terror over this nation for decades. But unless you were born before 1955, polio may seem to be just another ephemeral disease that has been nonexistent for years. Those born before 1955 remember having a great fear of this horrible disease which crippled thousands of once active, healthy children. This disease had no cure and no identified causes, which made it all the more terrifying. People did everything that they had done in the past to prevent the spread of disease, such as quarantining areas, but these tactics never seemed to work. Polio could not be contained. Many people did not have the money to care for a family member with polio. This was one of the

The first supportive argument of mandating vaccines is that vaccines save lives. In their article “A Mandatory HPV Vaccine Will Save Lives” (2010), Ellen M. Daley and Robert J. McDermott argue the importance of mandating the human papillomavirus, HPV, vaccine. They first note one of the most well-known successful vaccinations: the polio vaccine. Created in 1955 and revamped in 1962 by Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, the vaccine was first introduced when polio infections were over 16,000 cases and 1,900 deaths a year, and initially lowered the infection rate to less than 1,000 cases per year after 1955 (Daley and McDermott par. 2). This fact provides evidence that the first vaccine significantly reduced the number of

Poliomyelitis was a highly infectious disease that spread through many Americans in the early 20th century. As a matter of fact, over 3,000 Americans died of the disease each year. Families were overwhelmingly desperate for doctors to find a cure. When one suffered from polio, they generally experienced painful symptoms which included not only fatigue and muscle weakness, but even death. Therefore, when the polio vaccine was introduced by scientist Jonas Salk in 1953, it greatly contributed to Americans in numerous positive ways. Environmentally, the vaccine saved countless young American lives affected by the disease thus decreasing American mortality rates. Socially, the polio vaccine convenienced families who were either directly afflicted

On October 22nd, 2007 The United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention posted a web article which admitted that polio vaccines contained a cancer-causing virus. The United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention also known as the CDC, deleted the post within the week it was posted. The National Center for Biotech Information Center confirms that Micro biologist Maurice Hilleman discovered Simian Virus 40 was contained in polio vaccines administrated from 1995. (Hilleman) The CDC stated that the virus was removed from the vaccine in 1961. Records show that contaminated vaccines were used until 1963 and were used in different parts of the world until the 1980’s. (Varmus) As a result of the 98 million people given a polio vaccine; 30 million received the contaminated dose. (Hilleman) On May 10th, 2002 a Pathologist by the name of Dr. Michelle Cabone tested the

Poliomyelitis (polio) is a disease that attacks the nervous tissue in the spinal cord and the brain stem resulting in paralysis (Document One). Polio is caused by the poliovirus, but it is unknown how this virus is acquired. The virus enters the digestive tract and stays in the intestines for up to eight weeks, and then attacks the lymphatic system, the blood stream and eventually travels to the brain and spine (Document Four). Once it is infected in one’s body, the disease is highly contagious and can be spread through contact of saliva, food, germs, or feces (Document Two). “The poliovirus causes most of its infections in the summer and fall. At one time, summer epidemics of polio were common and greatly feared” (Document Four). This may

In February 1952, Jonas Salk at University of Pittsburgh announced that he’d developed the world’s first polio vaccine, but he couldn’t begin offering it to the children until he’d tested it on a large scale to prove it was safe and effective. And doing that would require culturing cells on an enormous, industrial scale, which no one had done before (Rebecca Skloot).

With a substantial amount of preventive healthcare advancements behind them, the American medical community turned its attention to the 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 period, 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 combat the devastating polio disease. After much trial and error, Dr. Salk was finally able to create what he felt was a successful polio vaccination, and proceeded to conduct a field test. After resounding success, manufacturing instructions for the Salk vaccine were sent to a series of scientific laboratories for immediate production and administration to American children. The disaster that occurred next will forever be known through American medical history as the Cutter Incident (named so after one of the labs that administered the polio vaccine). This medical crisis sent shockwaves throughout America and the medical community, and numerous lawsuits were filed against Cutter Laboratories, resulting in fewer and fewer labs willing to accept contract work in developing vaccines.

With the last outbreak of Polio in the US being in 1979, many today have no recollection of the terror of this disease. The disease primarily infected children, and there seemed to be no pattern to who succumbed to it. No one could feel safe. Polio as a disease presents such horrors that even those who overcome it once can be plagued by its aftereffects in later life. Before vaccines, single outbreaks could devastate entire communities. One outbreak

Childhood vaccinations have profound effects on both the child and the society. For every child that is vaccinated, 33,000 lives are saved and 14 million cases of diseases are prevented (Nicastro & Rejman, 2012). Smallpox has been completely eradicated through vaccinations, the rubella immunization has nearly eliminated the harmful effects of deafness and blindness created by the congenital rubella syndrome, and the stereotypical gait, leg braces, iron lung and associated infections created by polio are no longer prevalent due to the polio vaccination (Ferbach, 2011). Fortunately, today’s generation has never had to witness the devastating effects of these highly contagious diseases.

The possible side effects of hepatitis B, pertussis, pneumococcal disease and rotavirus may be alarming, but they highly outweigh the effects of the actual disease. “About one of every 600,000 doses of hepatitis B vaccine is complicated by a severe allergic reaction called anaphylaxis” (The Benefits of Vaccination Outweigh the Risks). No one has ever died from the hepatitis vaccination, but the symptoms of anaphylaxis- hives, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea- can be quite frightening (Mayo Clinic). During the polio epidemic of 1952, “of the 58,000 cases reported that year 3,145 died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis” (History). After Jonas Salk developed the first polio vaccination in 1955, the number of polio victims dropped to nine hundred and ten. In addition to this claim, vaccines save the lives of many who could have died from vaccine-preventable

Immunizations have lowered the morbidity rate over the course of many years. Before vaccines were introduced, during 1900 through 1904, an average of 48,164 cases and 2528 deaths were caused by both severe and mild forms of smallpox in the United States. After the smallpox vaccine was introduced, the disease ceased to stop and the last case to ever be reported was in 1929. Getting vaccinated against the smallpox actually eradicated the disease, meaning it has been wiped out. Next, in 1951- 1954, on average, 16,316 polio cases and 1879 polio deaths were reported each year. Once the polio vaccine was introduced, less that 1000 cases were reported in 1962. As of 1991, wild-type polio viruses have been eliminated from the Western Hemisphere. But

Because of advances in medical science, your child can be protected against more diseases than ever before. Some diseases that once injured or killed thousands of children, have been eliminated completely and others are close to extinction primarily due to safe and effective vaccines. Polio is one example of the great impact that vaccines had have in the United States (Five). Polio was once America’s most-feared disease, causing death and paralysis across the country, but today, thanks to vaccination, there are no reports of polio in the

“A 1916 Polio epidemic in the United States killed 6,000 people and paralyzed 27,000 more” (“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 the United States and helped prevent polio in other parts of the world (“Polio Vaccine”).

The similarity between the poliovirus and already solved plant virus’s led to a better understanding of how the poliovirus can regenerate within a host. Although the virus was similar to other plant viruses. The poliovirus was covered with more elaborate loops that are the site of monoclonal antibody escape mutations (Hogle, Chow and 229: 1358-1365Filman, Science). Individual proteins of the virus particle are produced by proteolytic cleavages from a larger precursor, yet the amino and carboxy-termini produced by proteolysis are very distinct. By noting this, Hogle and his team were able to conclude that proteolysis was not just making a lot of proteins from one gene, it is also controlling the timing of assembly (Hogle, Chow and Filman, Science 229: 1358-1365).