Polio Literature Review

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.

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

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

Describe the public health concern(s) being targeted for this assignment. Include where the group has previously identified the public health concern(s).

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

Misinformation about polio vaccine and political unrest has been cited as the main challenges holding back the global goal of achieving a polio-free world, a study has revealed.

In 1988, 350,000 cases of polio, an incurable virus that can cause permanent paralysis or death, were reported. In 2014, only 359 cases were reported (“Poliomyelitis”). The reason for this dramatic decline in cases was a global initiative to vaccinate children and eradicate the virus. No longer did parents have to warn their children away from crowded areas or swimming pools for fear of their child contracting polio. However, as the relief faded and polio became little more than a historical relic, a new movement gained traction. People started focusing more on the possible dangers of vaccines than on their numerous advantages. It culminated in an “anti-vaccination” movement, and ever since science and advocates have been fighting over the issue. Vaccines have since been studied closely for years, and a myriad of investigations have proven that vaccinations are crucial. Every person should receive necessary immunizations because they protect people from dying of preventable diseases, their benefits far outweigh the risks, and vaccinated people protect all members of their community, especially those who cannot receive vaccinations.

David Oshinsky's 2005 Polio: An American Story, is a history of the fight to eradicate polio in the 20th century. Polio became one of the most, if not THE most, feared diseases of the century due to the influence and example of President Franklin Roosevelt, who was stricken with the disease as an adult in 1921. Owner of a Warm Springs, GA resort dedicated to polio rehabilitation(where he died in 1945), Roosevelt needed to raise funds to keep the resort operational. In 1934, he allowed planners to throw a nationwide series of birthday parties (over 6,000) for him to raise money for the care of polio survivors and for the upkeep of Warm Springs. The success of these parties and recognition that the key to raising money during the Great Depression

Polio is a deadly virus that hit america in the 1930s (Franklin Roosevelt founds...N.P.). Franklin Roosevelt founds March of Dimes Polio is also known to be a crippling disease, which affected Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the age of 39. But, on January the third he created a foundation for a cure for polio called March of Dimes(Franklin Roosevelt founds March of Dimes N.P.).10 years later he created a foundation,Warm Springs Foundation, which focus entirely on the treatment of people with polio(Franklin Roosevelt founds March of Dimes N.P.). In 1934, a business, Henry Doherty donated $25,000 to establish a series of birthday balls(Franklin Roosevelt founds March of Dimes N.P.). In the first year they raised 1 million dollars off

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

When my daughter was a baby, and we decided to delay vaccination, a friend of my mother-in-law seemed thrilled with our decision. However, she advised to look into the polio vaccine because there wasn 't much they could do if someone did contract polio. During my research, I have found that the polio vaccine is all but completely unnecessary for anyone in the United States. Let 's take a look at some of the most interesting information I have found.

In February 2013 nine female polio vaccination workers in Nigeria were killed. This tragic incident sheds some light on resistance to vaccinations. Ten years ago Nigerian religious leaders told citizens that vaccines were unsafe, that they caused sterility. Polio is close to becoming the second disease successfully eliminated due to vaccines. Less than 250 cases of Polio were reported last year worldwide. Polio can only be eliminated if Nigeria stops resisting and if South Asia does the same ("The Dangers of Vaccine Defiance [analysis]."). Polio is still a problem in Nigeria, even though it’s not in America. Given the amount of international travel and immigration, to not vaccinate is to risk the chance of young children getting a deadly disease. (Offit) Polio causes permanent paralysis in one in every 200 cases and death in a tenth of those cases. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) claims that 10 million children have been saved from paralysis due to vaccination. Vaccinations save 10 million lives every year. Many

Polio is an infectious disease that has killed and paralyzed many people (Birth of Jonas Salk and the death of polio in India). It has taken the lives of

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).