Polio Vaccine

The most feared disease of the 1950s was polio. It attacked children more than adults and afflicted the rich as well as the poor.

Polio is an infectious disease caused by one of three types of virus that enters the body through the mouth. It lives in the bloodstream before taking one of two routes. It either enters the bowels, where it is expelled without causing any more harm than the common cold, or it travels to the central nervous system, where it damages cells in the brain steam or spinal cord. Severe paralysis and even death can occur.

In 1953, Dr. Hart E. Van Riper, director of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP), announced that more cases of polio had been reported in the prior five years than in the previous twenty. Immediately, rumors circulated that insects, animals, poor genetics, and even infected fruit spread polio. Van Riper tried to dispel these rumors by explaining that neither bugs nor heredity caused the disease, which tends to strike in the summer. He cautioned parents about letting children play in swimming pools, where the risk of transmission was increased. Children were encouraged not to play hard for fear of sweating, which was believed to promote the disease. As a result, public swimming pools were closed and children spent summertime engaging in quiet activities.

Vaccines

An early polio vaccine in the 1950s did little to keep the disease at bay. It was made using gamma globulin, a component of human blood that helps prevent infectious viruses. Gamma globulin was already being used in the measles vaccine, which was administered to schoolchildren on a regular basis. Because of this use, gamma globulin was in short supply and could not be used to make many polio vaccines. As a result, the early polio vaccine offered immunity lasting only eight days. Parents demanded something better for their children.

Dr. Jonas Salk (1914–1995) developed a vaccine consisting of all three types of the polio virus. In the spring of 1954, it was tested on 1.8 million schoolchildren. Test results in 1955 showed that the vaccine worked in preventing the onset of polio, and Congress passed the Poliomyelitis Vaccination Act. The act provided $30 million for states to buy the vaccine. Four major drug companies worked together to provide 9.8 million doses for elementary school children in 1955. First graders received the shot first, then children in grades two to four, then pregnant women past the twelfth week of pregnancy. By the end of 1958, 200 million people had received the Salk vaccine.

The Salk vaccine had its problems. It was difficult to mass-produce because the viruses had to be killed before being made into the vaccine. If a live virus made it into the vaccine batch (which happened in 1955), the shot would infect the recipient with the very disease from which it was designed to protect. Another drawback was that immunity lasted just thirty months, at which time a booster shot was needed. Researchers continued to look for ways to improve the vaccine.

Sabin to the rescue

Experts knew they needed to devise a vaccine using the live virus. It would increase the length of immunity and be easier to make on a large scale. Albert Sabin (1906–1993) successfully tested his live-virus vaccine on thirty prisoner volunteers in 1955. He announced that his vaccine was ready for mass testing in 1956, but Americans were skeptical. The idea of using a live virus to actually protect people did not make sense. Sabin was invited to test his vaccine in the Soviet Union, and he did so, successfully. Finally, in 1961, Americans allowed their children to be immunized with Sabin's vaccine. The best news for children was that the vaccine was not a shot. It was a cherry-flavored liquid that they could drink.

Salk and Sabin are the names most commonly related to the polio vaccine, but thousands of researchers helped in the fight. Hundreds of millions of dollars were donated for research and patient care. By the 1980s, the United States reported fewer than ten cases of polio each year.