The Antibody Initiative -- Preventing Polio
Preventing Polio
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In 1916, as a major epidemic of poliomyelitis swept the United States, the U.S. Public Health Service somberly acknowledged, “[t]here is no specific treatment of established value in poliomyelitis.” The poliovirus produces no, or only minor, symptoms in 95% of those infected. However, in about 5% of cases, flu-like symptoms of fever, neck stiffness, nausea, and fatigue, or a slight, temporary paralysis occur. About 1% of those with polio symptoms experience a severe form called paralytic polio that has lasting effects. In the worst cases of paralytic polio, 2% to 5% of children and 10% to 20% of adults die.
Before the development of effective vaccines, polio epidemics stymied medical practitioners and communities. Public health officers often imposed quarantines by posting signs such as this one on the doors of private residences. While isolating infected people was one of the most effective approaches to containing polio, it required communities to report outbreaks in the early stages; additionally, citizens needed to obey the strict rules of quarantine.
Despite the use of quarantines, polio could and did spread. During the first half of the 20th century, America experienced several epidemics.
In the acute phase of the disease, some patients suffered paralysis of the muscle groups in their chests, which resulted in breathing difficulty or—in the most severe cases—death. In 1928, Philip Drinker and Louis Agassiz Shaw developed a tank respirator or iron lung. Their device used a motor-driven pump to rhythmically increase and decrease the atmospheric pressure in the container, forcing the lungs to expand and contract, mimicking normal breathing. Patients usually spent one to two weeks in this type of respirator, leaving it only when they could breathe on their own.
In 1931, John Haven Emerson introduced the improved iron lung depicted here. His design, which was quieter and cheaper, found a growing market as polio epidemics continued.
In some (rare) cases, polio causes a permanent loss of muscle function in the arms or legs. Patients often found themselves not only struggling to breathe but also to resume their lives after the disease had run its course. Edna Hindson was six when she developed polio in 1946; her scrapbook details her experience with the disease, including her trip to Warm Springs, Georgia, to recuperate.
In an oral history done in 2005, Hindson remembered “wait[ing] and wait[ing] for” a brace while at Warm Springs. But even with braces, walking was difficult. Franklin Roosevelt, who contracted polio in 1921, used not only braces and crutches but also needed to lean on someone else’s arm to walk.
In 1938, Roosevelt pushed Americans to find a cure for polio by founding the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. Known as the March of Dimes, the organization used canisters such as this one modeled on an iron lung to solicit funds for the development of a vaccine. Promotional pins such as this one of a small crutches dramatized polio’s impact.
Researchers had isolated the poliovirus in 1908. During the first half of the 20th century, they pursued two different kinds of vaccine: one used an inactivated (killed) virus; the other a live but attenuated (weakened) virus. Jonas Salk’s early success with a killed virus vaccine led the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis to implement a large-scale trial of his vaccine in 1954. Polio was so dreaded that parents eagerly volunteered their children, believing that the risks of the trial paled beside the dangers of polio. Ultimately, health officials inoculated 623,972 children from across the country with the experimental vaccine. Participants, such as Helena Wright, received pins and certificates indicating that they were “pioneers” breaking new ground in the battle against infectious disease.
Even as Salk’s vaccine was being tested, Albert Sabin was developing a vaccine with an attenuated virus. Sabin argued that his vaccine, unlike Salk’s, would provide long-term immunity. Sabin’s vaccine also had the benefit of conferring “herd immunity.” Individuals who have received this vaccine shed weakened virus in their fecal waste; this gives others a partial exposure to the weakened virus, boosting their immune system.
By the time Sabin’s vaccine was ready to undergo field trials, most American children had received Salk’s vaccine and were, therefore, immune to polio. Searching for a population that had not received Salk’s vaccine, Sabin and his team decided to run field trials in the regions then known as the U.S.S.R. and the Belgian Congo. Polio’s dangers were such that the Americans and Soviets were willing to trust one another in testing Sabin’s vaccine, even at the height of the Cold War.
The success of these field trials led to the adoption of Sabin’s vaccine between 1963 and 1999. However, the live virus in Sabin’s vaccine occasionally could become strong enough to cause polio. As a result, Salk killed-type vaccine replaced the live type of vaccine in the United States, once the threat from polio had clearly receded in the country after 1999.
Over the last fifty years, vaccination has eliminated polio in the United States and many other countries. However, because the presence of the disease anywhere puts Americans and others at risk, public health officials are currently working to eradicate polio across the world. Today, just as in the 1940s and 1950s, pins and other promotional materials remind people everywhere of the importance of vaccination in wiping out polio---forever.


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Polio Pioneer Membership Certificate Given to a Participant in the 1954 Polio Vaccine Field Trials
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1954
- Associated Name
- Wright, Helena
- maker
- National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis
- ID Number
- 2000.0003.1
- catalog number
- 2000.0003.1
- accession number
- 2000.0003
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Orimune - Poliovirus Vaccine - Live, Oral, Monovalent - Sabin Strain Type 1
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1962
- maker
- American Cyanamid Company. Lederle Laboratories Division
- ID Number
- MG.M-10320.01
- catalog number
- M-10320.01
- accession number
- 243486
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Salk Polio Vaccine, Saukett Strain
- Description
- Jonas Salk first tested his polio vaccine on humans in July 1952 when he inoculated thirty children at the D. T. Watson Home for Crippled Children near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. These children had already had polio, so Salk's test was designed to prove that his vaccine would create a higher level of immunity than a natural infection. Salk also tested his vaccine on residents of the Polk State Home and on himself and members of his laboratory staff.
- This vial contains residue of polio vaccine from these first tests. The polio virus exists in hundreds of different strains, all of which fall into three major types. A complete vaccine must contain a strain from each of these three types. However, the children at the Watson Home received only one type of vaccine matching the strain of their original polio infection. This vial is labeled for the Saukett strain (Type III).
- Researchers isolated this strain from James Sarkett who contracted polio when he was ten years old. However the label on the sample taken from Sarkett was misread as “Saukett.” In scientific and medical research the strain continues to be referred to as the “Saukett strain.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1952
- maker
- Salk, Jonas E.
- ID Number
- MG.221419.05
- catalog number
- 221419.05
- accession number
- 221419
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Poliomyelitis Vaccine from Field Trials
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1954
- ID Number
- MG.221419.12.2
- accession number
- 221419
- catalog number
- 221419.12.2
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Poliomyelitis Vaccine Evaluation Registration Card, No 1
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1954
- associated organization
- National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis
- associated person
- Salk, Jonas E.
- Kerr, Randall V.
- maker
- IBM
- ID Number
- MG.221419.11
- accession number
- 221419
- catalog number
- 221419.11
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Vaccinum Poliomyelitidis - Per Orale - Typus I, II, III Sabin - (Oral Polio Vaccine -Type I, II, III Sabin)
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1963-05
- maker
- Medexport
- ID Number
- 2005.0033.01
- accession number
- 2005.0033
- catalog number
- 2005.0033.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Orimune - Poliovirus Vaccine - Live, Oral, Monovalent - Sabin Strain Type 3
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1962
- maker
- American Cyanamid Company. Lederle Laboratories Division
- ID Number
- MG.M-10320.03
- catalog number
- M-10320.03
- accession number
- 243486
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Polio Pioneer Button Given to a Participant in the 1954 Polio Vaccine Field Trials
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1954
- maker
- National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis
- Union Litho-Metal Corporation
- ID Number
- 2000.0003.2
- catalog number
- 2000.0003.2
- accession number
- 2000.0003
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Chest Portion of an Iron Lung Invented by C. E. H. Armbruster
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1914
- patent filed
- 1914-09-02
- patent date
- 1916-02-22
- ID Number
- 1982.0200.01
- accession number
- 1982.0200
- catalog number
- 1982.0200.01
- patent number
- 1172660A
- 1172661
- 1172662A
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Pump for the Iron Lung Invented by C. E. H. Armbruster
- Description
- Cast iron pump with a “LEIMAN BROS. AIR PUMP / PAT’D JUNE 04 / MAR 08” inscription. Charles E. H. Armbruster used this pump for an iron lung of his own invention.
- Ref: William H. Leiman and George W. Leiman, “Rotary Pump,” U.S. Patent 762,539 (June 14, 1904).
- William H. Leiman and George W. Leiman, “Blower,” U.S. Patent 883,464 (March 31, 1908).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1914
- patent filed
- 1914-09-02
- patent date
- 1916-02-22
- ID Number
- 1982.0200.02
- accession number
- 1982.0200
- catalog number
- 1982.0200.02
- patent number
- 1172660
- 1172661
- 1172662
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
button, (No) Polio
- Description (Brief)
- Pin-back buttons serve many purposes. They are efficient advertising vehicles, handy for fund-raising in support of a cause, concise statements of a person’s beliefs, a form of educational outreach, and convenient ice-breakers for conversation. NMAH has several hundred pin-back buttons related to disability, including this one from 2005. This button was created by Rotary International as part of their global campaign to end polio. The image depicts the polio virus.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- n.d.
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2010.0130.19
- catalog number
- 2010.0130.19
- accession number
- 2010.0130
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Tetravax - Diphtheria and Tetanus Toxoids and Pertussis Vaccine, Alum Precipitated, and Poliomyelitis Vaccine
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1959
- expiration date
- 1959-09-07
- maker
- Merck Sharp and Dohme
- ID Number
- 1982.0043.051
- accession number
- 1982.0043
- catalog number
- 1982.0043.051
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis Grant Application from Jonas Salk
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- July 12, 1950
- maker
- Salk, Jonas E.
- National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis
- ID Number
- MG.221419.02
- accession number
- 221419
- catalog number
- 221419.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Jonas Salk's Syringe
- Description
- Jonas Salk used this syringe during the testing of his polio vaccine. In the early tests carried out in 1952 and 1953, Salk gave all the vaccinations himself. The first subjects included children at the D. T. Watson Home for Crippled Children, residents of the Polk State Home, Salk, and members of his laboratory staff. In 1953, the first community-based, pilot vaccine trial was carried out with volunteer families in the Pittsburgh area. A second pilot trial included thousands of Pittsburgh schoolchildren. The success of these early tests paved the way for the Salk Vaccine National Field Trial of 1954.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1950
- maker
- Becton, Dickinson and Company
- ID Number
- MG.221419.07
- catalog number
- 221419.07
- accession number
- 221419
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Orimune - Poliovirus Vaccine -Live, Oral, Monovalent - Sabin Strain Type 2
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1962
- maker
- American Cyanamid Company. Lederle Laboratories Division
- ID Number
- MG.M-10320.02
- catalog number
- M-10320.02
- accession number
- 243486
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Salk Polio Vaccine, MEF-1 Strain
- Description
- Jonas Salk first tested his polio vaccine on humans in July 1952 when he inoculated thirty children at the D. T. Watson Home for Crippled Children near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. These children had already had polio, so Salk's test was designed to prove that his vaccine would create a higher level of immunity than a natural infection. Salk also tested his vaccine on residents of the Polk State Home and on himself and members of his laboratory staff.
- This vial contains residue of polio vaccine from these first tests. The polio virus exists in hundreds of different strains, all of which fall into three major types. A complete vaccine must contain a strain from each of these three types. However, the children at the Watson Home received only one type of vaccine matching the strain of their original polio infection. This vial is labeled for the MEF-1 strain (Type II). The MEF-1 polio virus strain was originally isolated in 1942 from incidents of poliomyelitis occurring among the Middle East Forces of the British Army, in Cairo, Egypt.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1952
- maker
- Salk, Jonas E.
- ID Number
- MG.221419.06
- catalog number
- 221419.06
- accession number
- 221419
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Salk Polio Vaccine, Mahoney Strain
- Description
- Jonas Salk first tested his polio vaccine on humans in July 1952 when he inoculated thirty children at the D. T. Watson Home for Crippled Children near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. These children had already had polio, so Salk's test was designed to prove that his vaccine would create a higher level of immunity than a natural infection. Salk also tested his vaccine on residents of the Polk State Home and on himself and members of his laboratory staff.
- This vial contains residue of polio vaccine from these first tests. The polio virus exists in hundreds of different strains, all of which fall into three major types. A complete vaccine must contain a strain from each of these three types. However, the children at the Watson Home received only one type of vaccine matching the strain of their original polio infection. This vial is labeled for the Mahoney strain (Type I).
- The Mahoney strain of the polio virus was isolated in 1941 from three children in the Mahoney family of Akron, Ohio. The children themselves were asymptomatic although they had been in contact with some serious cases of poliomyelitis.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1952
- maker
- Salk, Jonas E.
- ID Number
- MG.221419.04
- catalog number
- 221419.04
- accession number
- 221419
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Coin Donation Bank - March of Dimes - Reproduction of the "Iron Lung" Which Has Saved the Lives of Many Infantile Paralysis Victims
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1952
- maker
- Allied Printing Trades Council
- March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation
- ID Number
- 2005.3016.10
- nonaccession number
- 2005.3016
- catalog number
- 2005.3016.10
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Polio Eradication Button with "No" symbol over Polio Virus Image
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 2005.3017.02
- catalog number
- 2005.3017.02
- nonaccession number
- 2005.3017
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Poliovirus Vaccine, Live, Oral, Trivalent - Diplovax Types 1, 2 and 3 (Sabin) - Propagated in Human Diploid Cell Strain (WI-38 Hayflick) - 10 Doses (1 ml.) Tubes - Pfizer No. 5100
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1972
- expiration date
- 1972-12-01
- maker
- Pfizer Ltd.
- ID Number
- 2007.0171.06.2
- catalog number
- 2007.0171.06.2
- accession number
- 2007.0171
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History