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Google Doodle celebrates Jonas Salk 100th birthday, the Scientist who developed Polio Vaccine

By FnF Correspondent | PUBLISHED: 28, Oct 2014, 15:32 pm IST | UPDATED: 28, Oct 2014, 15:32 pm IST

Google Doodle celebrates Jonas Salk 100th birthday, the Scientist who developed Polio Vaccine New Delhi: To mark the 100th birthday of the man behind the polio vaccine, Google featured a cartoon depiction of Jonas Salk on its search page. Born on October 18, 1914 the American researcher and virologist joined a team working on a vaccine against polio in 1942 at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

He went on to head the Virus Research Lab at the University of Pittsburgh by 1947 and began preliminary testing of the polio vaccine in 1952.

Salk was able to identify three different polio viruses enabling him to develop a virus vaccine to combat the disease. In order to achieve this, he first grew and then destroyed polio viruses.  

The field trial for testing the vaccine was said to involve 20,000 health workers and over 1,800,000 school children, giving it historic status for its elaborate nature.

He would then apply his talents to the field of research, becoming a fellow at the University of Michigan where he worked to develop a flu vaccine at the request of the US Army.

By 1947, he was appointed director of the Virus Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the institution where he developed the techniques that would help him discover a vaccine for polio.

On April 12, 1955, the vaccine was declared a success and Salk, a miracle worker. Prior to the introduction of his vaccine, polio was second only to the atomic bomb as the greatest fear the American public harboured.

The best known victim of polio prior to the introduction of the Salk vaccine was US President Franklin D Roosevelt who was instrumental in funding the development of the vaccine.

Salk re-worked the established idea of a vaccine by suggesting that immunity could be established in the body by using inactivated viruses.

The virologist’s research soon caught the attention of Basil O'Connor, president of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (now known as the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation), whose organisation funded Salk's efforts to develop a vaccine against the devastating disease.

The resulting vaccine was tested first in monkeys and then in patients at the D.T. Watson Home for Crippled Children (now The Watson Institute), who already had polio.

Polio-free volunteers, including Salk, his laboratory staff, his wife and their children, were given the vaccine – none of whom reacted badly to the experimental drug.

In 1954, national testing began on one million children, ages six to nine, who became known as the Polio Pioneers: half received the vaccine, and half received a placebo. On April 12, 1955, the vaccine was declared safe and effective.

Salk chose not to patent the vaccine and did not earn any money from his discovery, preferring to see it distributed as widely as possible.

Salk died at age 80 on 23 June, 1995.