JONAS SALK

Discoverer of the Polio Vaccine

Polio - a dreaded word in the first half of the 1900's. Also known as infantile paralysis, it was a crippling disease, paralyzing its victims and confining them to a wheelchair. President Franklin Roosevelt was one of its most famous victims. Incidents of this disease, which very often struck children, were increasing as the years went on. In 1952 there were 58,000 cases reported in the United States, and over 3,000 died. Many public swimming pools were nearly empty for fear of contracting it in this way.

Jonas Salk would help change this. Born in New York City on Oct. 28, 1914, he recived his MD Degree in 1939 from the New York University College of Medicine. In 1947 he became the Director of the Virus Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh, and it was here that he would make his mark on history.

Most researchers used live, weakened forms of a virus to vaccinate against a disease. Salk attempted to use a "killed" or inactivated virus. This would lessen the risk of the vaccine actually causing the disease.

Salk and his family were actually among the first people to be injected with the vaccine. In 1954 it was tested in the largest clinical trials ever carried out at that time, and in 1955 it received federal approval for public use. By 1961, incidence of polio had dropped 95%.

Salk was criticized for his use of the inactive viruses. Many scientists also criticized him for not publishing his safety data, and for moving too quickly to use the vaccine. Many scientists were unhappy with him for the speed in which he had accomplished, and that he did not seem to give recognition to the others who had done the work before him that he built on. But in the end he was shown to have discovered an excellent, life-saving vaccine that changed the lives of many people. Salk never patented his vaccine, and he personally made no money from his discovery.

In 1963, Salk founded the The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, a leading biomedical research center, and in 1986 founded the Immune Response Corp in Carlsbad, NM, primarily for the investigation of a vaccine for AIDS. He died in 1995 of heart failure.

In 1999, he was chosen as one of Time Magazine's "Top 20 Most Influential Scientists and Thinkers of the 20th Century", and one of the five - along with Rachel Carson - featured on its cover (March 29, 1999).