Polio in Pennsylvania
(c) Pennsylvania Legacies (vol. 19, no 1)
“In the hot summer of 1916, a frightening new disease appeared across Pennsylvania. Young children developed a high fever accompanied by vomiting and diarrhea. Many soon recovered, but a growing number developed muscle weakness, fell while trying to walk, or had increasing difficulty breathing. When muscle paralysis set in, doctors were able to diagnose another instance of infantile paralysis, a disease newly epidemic in the United States. Infantile paralysis, or poliomyelitis, was an intestinal virus that in a small percentage of cases invaded the spinal cord, causing permanent muscle paralysis and even death.”
“The history of polio in Pennsylvania took an important turn in 1947, when Jonas Salk, a young doctor and scientist at the University of Michigan, arrived at the University of Pittsburgh to establish a new laboratory for the study of viruses. Salk had spent several years studying the influenza virus under the direction of Dr. Thomas Francis. He had learned techniques for developing a “killed virus” vaccine, including how to use formaldehyde to kill the virus, how to add chemicals to increase the effectiveness of the vaccine, and how to run large-scale tests of new vaccines. Salk’s new laboratory was partially funded by a grant from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP), better known as the March of Dimes, to establish a virus research program. Salk proposed to study influenza, but he also decided to investigate the poliovirus at least in part to continue to receive funding from the March of Dimes.”
“One of the great unknowns in 1947 was how many strains of the poliovirus existed. Scientists needed to know this number in order to create a vaccine that protected against all strains. This was painstaking, detailed work, but Salk eagerly enlisted his laboratory. The typing program ran from 1949 to 1951 and revealed that there were only three strains of the virus, which would make creating a vaccine much easier. A second crucial step was taken when John Enders and his laboratory at Harvard discovered how to grow the poliovirus on non-nervous tissue—in this case, monkey kidney tissue. Large amounts of the virus would be needed to create a vaccine to protect millions.”
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Copyright: (c) Pennsylvania Legacies (vol. 19, no 1). This Document may not be shared without permission from the original publisher.
