In 1950s, polio was still a highly contagious disease. Although under normal circumstances, the impact of polio is not as destructive as influenza, when polio breaks out, it seems uncontrollable. This disease mainly attacks children, nerve cells and sometimes the central nervous system, resulting in muscle degeneration, paralysis and sometimes even death. The most famous polio patient is President franklin delano roosevelt. He was infected with polio in an epidemic in 192 1, and his legs were permanently paralyzed. With the help of President Roosevelt, a grass-roots organization was established in the 1940s to find a cure for polio. The organization named "National Polio Foundation" (later "dime * * *") invited Dr. Jonas Salk from the University of Pittsburgh to lead their team. In his research, salk found at least three different types of 125 poliovirus. In order for the vaccine to be effective, it must kill these three people. Salk planted different virus samples, and then killed or invalidated them, which means that patients can get immunity without actual infection.
The clinical trial of Salk polio vaccine is the largest in history-to 1955, and 4 million vaccines have been vaccinated. The result was dramatic. About 65% of the vaccinated population was protected by 1 poliovirus, 90% by type 2 poliovirus and 94% by type 3 poliovirus, which greatly prevented the further epidemic of polio. Today, some progress has been made. Only two doses are needed. The effective rate of the three kinds of vaccines is close to 90%, and the immunization rate of the three doses is close to 99%.
Salk said to Edward R. Murrow in a TV interview, "Will you apply for a patent for Sun?" ? "About the meaning of this sentence, there are two views. Most people think that Dr. Salcher thinks it is a moral need to share the medical progress in this field. Recently, however, there is a theory that salk can be generous because he knows that if he applies for a patent, he will never get it.
Whatever Dr. Salk's motivation was, it changed the lives of millions of people.
March 1 1, 1954, * * * reported: "This is described as a long-sought answer to an important question, so that it can actually be determined that the vaccine will not only produce effective immunity to all three kinds of polio, but also that this immunity will be lasting and may be a person's life. This may mean that in the next three to five years, polio, regardless of age, will become a plague that human beings will eventually tame and conquer together with terrible infectious diseases such as diphtheria, smallpox and typhoid fever. In the United States alone, 65,438+0,000 new cases of polio were found, resulting in more than 3,000 deaths and about 26,5438+0,000 disabilities. From 65438 to 0988, there were only about 350,000 cases of polio in the world, mainly distributed in underdeveloped countries. In the same year, WHO, the United Nations Children's Fund and the Rotary Foundation set out to eradicate this disease that has plagued mankind since prehistoric times. In 20 12, due to these efforts centered on the wider use of polio vaccine, the number of cases dropped to 223, mainly distributed in Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan. I hope that in the next ten years, polio will only exist in the laboratory like smallpox.
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