Immunologist Jonas Salk Inventor of the first Polio-I

Inventor of polio vaccine: Jonas Salk would be 100 years old today

26/10/2014

Jonas Salk, who was born in poverty, became one of the most successful researchers in the United States and developed the first vaccine against polio. With this discovery, the immunologist was instrumental in controlling polio. However, the scientist never received any significant awards.

Fight against the fear
Jonas Salk's fight against polio was also a fight against fear. „Being free of fear is the strongest of all emotions“, he once said that „Los Angeles Times“, as the news agency dpa reports now. „I learned how important it is to free people from their fear.“ For a long time, polio, which had afflicted thousands of people worldwide since the late nineteenth century and led to death or permanent paralysis, was an immense source of anxiety.

The 1995 died immunologist Salk researched for decades until he finally 1955 actually found the first vaccine against polio. As a result, the polio was contained in no time. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), most industrialized countries are still considered polio-free today. After the discovery, the scientist became a celebrated star in his US homeland, at least in patients. For colleagues, Salk, who would have turned 100 on October 28, should remain extremely unpopular throughout his life.

No significant awards received
The researcher never received the Nobel Prize or other major awards. Even in the National Academy of Science of the United States, he was never elected. Only the equally highly respected Salk Research Institute in California belonged to the scientist. However, this was his own as well. „I would never have become a member of this institute if I had not founded it myself“, Salk said in one of his rare interviews. Colleagues publicly accused him of being vain and unaffiliated and neglecting or concealing the contributions of other scientists to his research. In particular, with Albert Sabin argued Salk. Sabin had developed a polio vaccine shortly after Salk's discovery, which also helped reduce the disease. Nevertheless, the two scientists did not work together, but poisoned themselves publicly. When „pure kitchen chemistry“ denoted Sabin Salk's invention. „He has not discovered anything.“

Salk also searched for a vaccine against HIV
However, Salk, born in New York in 1914, did not let go of his path. „I follow my own rules.“ The Jewish father of the impoverished researcher was Schneider. Salk quickly embarked on research after studying medicine at Michigan and Pennsylvania universities. He did this partly with unusual methods. So he first tested the polio vaccine on his three sons. However, the scientific career was not over for Salk after his great discovery. Even in the 1980s, he was researching for a vaccine against HIV. At the time he already lived in California where he got his „Science Cathedral“, as he called her.

Scientist did not patent invention
However, he was not successful in the fight against HIV. At the age of 80, Salk died of heart failure on June 23, 1995. After that, some colleagues also expressed their friendliness. „He was one of the greats in American medicine when it comes to vaccines“, says the AIDS researcher Anthony Fauci. Salk had never got rich with his invention, he had not even patented it. Shortly after the release of the vaccine on April 12, 1955, he said in an interview, if any, that the patent belonged to humans. „There is no patent. Could you patent the sun??“

Polio pathogens are found worldwide
With the exception of the polar regions, the polio pathogen can be found worldwide. Since the invention of vaccines and the consistent implementation of vaccination measures, the frequent occurrence of the disease has been reduced to a few areas. Polio (Poliomyelitis) is an infectious disease caused by polioviruses, which affects the muscle-controlling nerve cells of the spinal cord and can lead to permanent paralysis or even death. Especially children between the ages of three and eight are affected. After an incubation period, there is a three-day illness with fever, sore throat, fatigue, frequent diarrhea and nausea and vomiting. In more than three-quarters of those affected, so-called abortive poliomyelitis heals without consequences. (Ad)