! 310 



In recent years, roughly 35,000 to 50,000 cases have been reported. [Rates were 

 as high in some parts of the country as 200 or 300 per 100,000.] 



Moreover, with increasing frequency, the disease was occurring 

 among the age group of young adults. Among those who contracted it 

 later in life, the af ter-eflfects of the disease were likely to be more severe. 

 The number of persons crippled by the disease, moreover, was cumula- 

 tive: "In January 1952, the Nation had 45,000 patients requiring con- 

 tinuing care [and] this number in January 1055 reached the figure of 

 71,000 * * *."i 



Present hnmunization treatinents for ijol'w 



By 1962 there were available in the United States two types of vac- 

 cine to prevent paralytic polio. The first, developed largely by Dr. 

 Salk, is given most usually to persons over 18 years of age. The second, 

 developed by Dr. Albert Sabin of the Children's Hospital, Cincinnati, 

 Ohio, and licensed in 1961, is recommended by the Public Health Serv- 

 ice to be given only to children. Both vaccines were developed with 

 the encouragement and financial support of the National Foundation 

 for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP), using funds from the annual March 

 of Dimes collection campaigns. 



The development of the Salk vaccine was made possible by impor- 

 tant prior discoveries in the isolation of the three strains of the polio 

 virus, and in advances in tissue culture and virology.^ It is an aqueous 

 solution of the three types of polio viruses, cultured in monkey tissue, 

 and inactivated by successive exposure to formalin or combined treat- 

 ment with formalin and ultraviolet rays. It retains enough potency 

 to produce antibodies or immunity in the human body. The Sabin vac- 

 cine produces the same antibody resjjonse. It differs from the Salk 

 vaccine in that the viruses remain alive in the vaccine; they are at- 

 tenuated, or made relatively hannless, and may produce a mild intes- 

 tinal infection in the vaccinated subjects. 



Controversy over introduction of the Siolk raceme 



The polio immunization treatment developed under the direction of 

 Dr. Salk was the first to come to public attention. After widespread 

 testing in 1954 and early 1955, carried out under the auspices of the 

 NFIP in cooperation with State and local public health officers and 

 private physicians, the vaccine was publicly declared ready for gen- 

 eral use. The announcement i)recipitated a chain of responses that in- 

 cluded considerable confusion over the role of the new Department 

 of Health, Education, and Welfare in supporting distribution of the 

 vaccine, difficulties with the process of assuring its safety under con- 

 ditions of large-scale manufacture, and eventually congressional hear- 

 ings to air the issues raised by the new development. 



One set of controversies concerned the role of the Department of 

 Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW) in helping to distribute 



1 U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce Poliomyelitis 

 Vaccination Assistance Act of 195.5. Report [to accompany H.R. 7126] .July 14. 1955. 

 House Report No. 1186. 84th Cong., first sess. (Washington, U.S. Government Printing 

 Office. 1955), pp. 2-3. 



-For a description of scientific developments leading to the achievement of polio vaccines, 

 see James A. Shannon. M.D., NTH — ^Present and, Potential Contribution To Application 

 of Biomedical Knowledge. In U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Government Opera- 

 tions. Research in thf> Service of Man : Biomedical Knowledge, Development, and TTse. 

 A conference sponsored bv the Subcommittee on Government Research (pursuant to S. Res. 

 218, 89th Cong.) and the Frontiers of Science Foundation of Oklahoma for the * * *. 

 90th Cong, first sess. Committee print. (Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 

 1967), pp. 72-86. 



