Who found the cure for polio?
On March 26, 1953, American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announces on a national radio show that he has successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio.
Who was the first person who found polio vaccine?
The first polio vaccine to be widely used in humans, known as inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) or Salk vaccine, was developed in the early 1950s by American physician Jonas Salk.
When was polio first cured?
The United States has been polio-free since 1979, thanks to a successful vaccination program. However, poliovirus is still a threat in some countries. Get your child vaccinated on schedule to help keep the U.S. polio-free.
Did Jonas Salk make money off the polio vaccine?
There is no sign that the foundation intended to profit from a patent on the polio vaccine.” Although he was the first to produce a polio vaccine, Salk did not win the Nobel Prize or become a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Where did polio originally come from?
The first epidemics appeared in the form of outbreaks of at least 14 cases near Oslo, Norway, in 1868 and of 13 cases in northern Sweden in 1881. About the same time, the idea began to be suggested that the hitherto sporadic cases of infantile paralysis might be contagious.
How was polio treated before vaccine?
Before the polio vaccine was developed, doctors tried to treat patients with ultraviolet light, which was known to inactivate the virus in the lab.
How long did it take to approve the polio vaccine?
It had taken the world's top medical minds more than two centuries to progress from recognizing a disease to testing vaccines. Even after identifying the virus that caused polio, it took another 40 years to get vaccine trials up and running.
How did polio get eradicated?
Polio has been eliminated from the United States thanks to widespread polio vaccination in this country. This means that there is no year-round transmission of poliovirus in the United States. Since 1979, no cases of polio have originated in the United States.