New Delhi:- Today, February 23, is recorded as a historic achievement in medical history. On 23 February 1954, polio vaccination was given to children for the first time.
A group of schoolchildren at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US, were given the first injection of the polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk. This step proved to be decisive in saving the world from a disease which was considered almost incurable and scary at that time.
Poliomyelitis was a highly infectious disease, attacking nerve cells and sometimes the central nervous system. This leads to muscle wasting, permanent paralysis, and in many cases, death.
Despite improvements in the medical field in the 20th century, polio outbreaks continued to occur and particularly affected children.
In 1921, future US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was also affected by polio, which left him with permanent paralysis in his legs. To deal with this disease, in the late 1940s an organization called ‘March of Dimes’ contacted Dr. Jonas Salk, head of virus research at the University of Pittsburgh.
Salk discovered during his research that there were three main types of polio and that an effective vaccine must be able to fight all three. He developed samples of polio virus, inactivated it with a chemical called formalin and prepared a vaccine that would generate immunity in the body, but would not spread infection.
A large-scale vaccination campaign began in 1954. A faulty batch led to about 200 cases in the early stages, but as production standards improved, about 4 million people had been vaccinated by August 1955. Polio cases in the US dropped from 14,647 in 1955 to 5,894 in 1956. By 1959, about 90 countries adopted Salk’s vaccine.
The live but weakened virus was later used in the oral polio vaccine (OPV), developed by Albert Sabin. It was licensed in 1962 and became widely popular because it was cheap and easy.
Although there is still no direct cure for polio, vaccination has resulted in a 99 percent decline in cases worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, the disease is now limited to only a few poor and marginalized areas.
This day of 23 February reminds us of the victory of humanity, when science and research together achieved a historic victory over a dreadful disease.
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