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Jonas Salk...
Jonas Salk...
Item # 568080
April 11, 1955
LEOMINSTER DAILY ENTERPRISE, Massachusetts, April 11, 1955
* Jonas Salk
* Polio vaccine awaits final approval
This 8 page newspaper has a two column headline on the front page: "WORLD IS TO LEARN TOMORROW OF RESULTS OF POLIO VACCINE TESTS"
It was actually this day that the vaccine was approved and made public.
Other news of the day throughout. Little margin wear, otherwise in good condition.
wikipedia notes: The vaccine was first tested in monkeys, and then in patients at the D.T. Watson Home for Crippled Children. After successful tests, in 1952, Salk tested his vaccine on volunteering parties, including himself, the laboratory staff, his wife, and his children. In 1954, national testing began on two million children, ages six to nine, who became known as the Polio Pioneers. This was one of the first double-blind placebo-controlled tests, which has since become standard: half of the treated received the vaccine, and half received a placebo, where neither the individuals nor the researchers know who belongs to the control group and the experimental group. One-third of the children, who lived in areas where vaccine was not available, were observed in order to evaluate the background level of polio in this age group. On April 12, 1955, the results were announced: the vaccine was safe and effective. The patient would develop immunity to the live disease due to the body's earlier reaction to the killed virus.
Salk's vaccine was instrumental in beginning the eradication of polio, a once widely-feared disease. Polio epidemics in 1916 left about 6000 dead and 27,000 paralyzed in the United States. In 1952, 57,628 cases were recorded in the U.S. After the vaccine became available, polio cases in the U.S. dropped by 85-90 percent in only two years. Unfortunately, some drug companies manufactured contaminated polio vaccine containing live virus, and this error cost dozens of lives.
Category: The 20th Century
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