The Relationship between the Polio Vaccine and AIDS in Africa

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.

Nobody has ever discovered completely how it is that polio is spread. The best evidence suggests that the virus is excreted in the stool and passed through hand to hand or hand to mouth contact by people who do not wash their hands properly or often enough. It was during the first few years of the fifties and many years before then, that health department officials

“When interviewed by Curtis, Hilary Koprowski, the polio-vaccine pioneer who mounted that massive campaign, could not recall or find documentary evidence as to whether his group had used kidney cells from green monkeys or Asian macaques” 900,000 people received it, enough to start an epidemic.

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

He knew that Polio caused paralysis, and invaded the nervous system. As a result, he wanted to end the greatest epidemic in America at that time. As he began researching, the president of the March of Dimes Foundation, Basal O’Connor, wanted to help Salk create the Polio vaccination. His goal was to fund Salk to find a cure against Paralytic Poliomyelitis, or Polio. Jonas devoted the next 8 years of his life working to develop the vaccine. He finally was able to create the vaccine, using formaldehyde, or a chemical compound. Salk used the killed Polio virus to immunize without being infected, or becoming infected after the injection. Soon after the vaccine was created, they began to test it on monkeys; and then they tested it on children who already had Polio at the Watson Institute. After that trial was done, the testing spread to volunteers who wanted the vaccine; this included Jonas, his wife, and his family. By 1954, national testing began on children between the ages of 6-9. On April 12, 1955, they were able to conclude that the vaccine was safe and effective. Salk became known as a miracle worker, although he remained selfless. Jonas wanted no major payment, or recognition for the creation of the vaccine. In fact, he credited that the vaccine creation was accomplished due to the help of John Enders, a Harvard researcher. Enders was the man

Jonas Salk is credited with the creation of a successful Polio vaccine (Find date). He potentially eradicated an outbreak that could’ve killed millions of people (Find # of people who died). When he went into law school (Name which school) he was trying to find a vaccine for Influenza when he quit (Find source). When the Polio outbreak came to America, Jonas Salk was right on its case (Find proof). When a non-effective vaccine was created by (Add creator), he was strongly determined to help people by making adjustments to it. After it was proven safe by (Add person and date), it was shipped to countries across the globe. The eradication of Polio in America is a remarkable feat. By Dr. Jonas Salk and after the Jonas Salk Legacy Foundation was founded in (Date).

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

The discovery of a chemical made by Canada was used to treat and cure Polio through a joint effort between USA and Canada. Canada developed a more effective oral vaccine after The United States drug trial caused severe backlashes. A graph published by Dr. Christopher J. Rutty visually depicts polio incidents till 1962 portrays the rates after each vaccine, like the Salk and Sabin vaccine made by United States and Canada respectively (Rutty). The graph shows a major decrease in Polio incidents after Canada created the Sabin vaccine in order to counteract the severe polio backlash caused by USA’s drug that was accidentally inactivated and caused polio instead of curing it. The graph is a major indicator that Canadian doctors working on the vaccine were extremely diligent and smart when working on the creation of the Sabin vaccine (the Canadian oral vaccine). The graph also signifies the speed at which Canada was able to release an effective cure for the backlash of the Salk vaccine (USA’s version of the polio vaccine) indicating, Canada was a growing nation in the 1970s in medicine. The creation of the Sabin vaccine led to copious numbers of Polio organizations in Canada doing worldwide care after a national vaccine was found. Canada’s role in the treatment of polio had resonating effects worldwide as a result. Canadian female doctor Vera Peters

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. Kluger transitions into Salk’s childhood and his serious nature. Kluger states: “Salk was…a serious boy, troubled by sometimes curious things. Rules seemed to grate him the most. Not that he didn’t expect a good rule when he came across one.” (25). Kluger flows well into talking about Salk’s education, Salk meeting his wife, them getting married, and all places that Salk worked in the different aspects of his life. Kluger does add bits and pieces of Basil O’Conner’s and Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s lives, in relation to polio and Jonas Salk’s life at that point in his career. Kluger goes into some detail about Salk’s creation of the influenza vaccine, but his main focus was on the polio vaccine. Salk used some of the techniques he learned from creating the flu vaccine and applied them to the polio vaccine. Some of those techniques worked, while others did not. Kluger goes into a lot of detail into Salk getting started working on the polio vaccine and who funded his research. There was

The Africa past colonial, past aftereffects, and its evils like malnutrition, illiteracy, war and the refusal of a part of the population in the developed countries especially in America to let American children get vaccinated raised the problem of vaccination especially in a bruised population in Africa. The current problem is whether to suspend vaccination campaigns or to continue the vaccination for the welfare of children. Is this right or wrong according to the relationship between patient and medical practitioners? What will be the outcomes of the refusal of

In 1977 Dr Jonas Salk (inventor of the Salk polio vaccine) testified with other scientists that 87% of the polio cases which occurred in the US since 1970 were the by-product of

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.

If I could choose any location in the world to practice medicine I would choose Africa. Africa has one of the highest mortality rates for both Hepatitis Virus and HIV or Aids. There is an extreme shortage of the amount of health care workers in the undeserved areas of Africa. Not only would I provide exceptional care as a Physician Assistant but I would also progressively help educate the people in Africa about preventative techniques or vaccinations to help stop the spread of these diseases in Africa. I would encourage the mothers to get their new born babies started on a Hepatitis vaccination series, and to encourage the public to use condoms when involved in sexual intercourse to stop the spread of Aids or HIV. I would do everything in my

“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”).