Dame Annie Jean Macnamara, MD
Polio Physician Jean Macnamara's Work Proves Viruses Can Be Vanquished
She is one of the Unsung Heroes of Polio Eradication.
“Living through a global pandemic will have a wealth of unintended consequences positive and negative, but one will certainly have a greater appreciation for those in the medical professions - from those on the front lines treating patients to those researchers laboring behind the scenes, seeking to isolate viruses and to discover vaccines both now and in the past.
Dame Jean Macnamara worked tirelessly for the disabled, but it was her research that helped lead to the polio vaccine that she is most remembered for. ©HOWSTUFFWORKS
Dame Jean Macnamara was one such heroine. She witnessed and made remarkable contributions in her chosen profession - medicine - principally in the area of polio research, and her work with patients with partial or complete paralysis.” (1)
She was born in Victoria, Australia, April 1,1899, into a family that prized hard work and education, and she excelled at both. A teenager during the First World War, was to be determined to become “of some use in the world.” (2) While attending the Presbyterian Ladies College, she became the editor of the school's magazine, winning the prize for general excellence. A high-achiever from the age of 15, she graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1922 with degrees in both surgery and anatomy.
She went on to become a resident medical officer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. After completing her residency at the then Children’s Hospital, she was consultant to the Poliomyelitis Committee of Victoria led by Dr. John Dale and was poised to be an honorary advisor on polio to authorities in three states.
After leaving the hospital, Macnamara worked as a clinical assistant and as a children's outpatients' physician before entering private practice to focus on poliomyelitis patients. (1) (3)
Lady Jean Macnamara Photo Source: El País de España
By the time of the epidemic in the late 1920s, Dr. Macnamara was well positioned to respond in the laboratory. She’d had a brilliant year that included working with Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet (who later won a Nobel Prize for medicine) and fellow Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researcher, Dr. Lucy Bryce.
“Preventing the spread of the disease was seen as the holy grail of public health – a mission that medical scientist Dame Jean Macnamara prosecuted with zeal, the welfare of children her guiding light.” (3) It was her conclusion that immune serum needed to be used in polio treatment during the pre-paralytic stage. Although it was a treatment that was never widely administered, she published and defended her results in both Australian and British journals.
However, it was her discovery in 1931 of more than one strain of the polio virus (along with Australian virologist Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet) that made her reputation. “Burnet agreed to collaborate with Macnamara to see if the convalescent serum would be effective against the latest outbreak - and it was this work that gave rise to a major discovery. While carrying out experiments at the institute, Burnet thought it might be interesting to compare the Melbourne strain of the virus with a virulent strain obtained from the Rockefeller Institute, called MV.” (3)
Two laboratory monkeys had each recovered from paralysis from one of the strains. But once tested with the other strain, both animals were again struck down with polio - this time fatally. The two strains did not cross immunize and showed there was more than one type of polio virus. Their finding is credited as one of the contributions that led to a direct impact on the development of the polio vaccine in 1955. (2) (3)
This earned her the award of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
She traveled to England and North America on a Rockefeller Fellowship from September 1931 to October 1933, even meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, himself a victim of polio. She married a fellow physician, dermatologist Joseph Connor in 1934.
In addition to her passionate interest in curing disease, Dr. Macnamara sought to alleviate the pain and suffering it left in its wake. She is credited with ordering the first artificial respirator (or ventilator) in Australia. She introduced novel approaches to rehabilitation and splinting damaged limbs, most developed in conjunction with conversation with patients and her own splint-maker. She was a tireless advocate for people with disabilities long before it was in style to do so.
She died in 1968 of heart disease. In 2018, when she was honored in Melbourne, her daughter (Merran Samuel) said: “Dame Jean was a humble and shy person, who was driven by a sense of duty and service. Educated on a scholarship, she was one of the first two women residents at the Royal Children’s Hospital.”
According to Google, Dame Jean Macnamara “applied her tireless work ethic to better understand and treat various forms of paralysis including polio.” Google honored her with their “doodle” on April 1,2020.
“The doodle with which Google is honoring her depicts Dame Jean Macnamara working directly with children to give them a hope to one day walk without needing crutches (with the two sides of the mirror depicting before and after.)” (2)
“Today's #GoogleDoodle honors Australian medical scientist Dame Jean Macnamara, whose work contributed to the development of a successful polio vaccine in 1955.” (April 1, 2020)
Article Sources:
(1) Polio Doc Jean Macnamara's Work Proves Viruses Can Be Vanquished
(2) Eight things to Know About Pioneering Polio Doctor Dame Jean Macnamara
(3) Multiple strains of the polio virus discovered, an early step towards the Salk vaccine.
(4) Jean Macnamara