Jonas Salk

1644 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: An essay about polio

Jonas Salk: Savior of the World
Polio is an unknown disease to most people under the age of 20, possibly even under 30, especially if they live in the United States. Polio used to cause fear in the hearts of most people in the mid 1950s. Fast-forward to today and this disease is essentially eradicated in the world. Dr. Jonas Salk is credited with developing the vaccine to prevent this disease. THESIS: The Salk injection vaccine was used for several years until it was replaced by the Sabin oral vaccine, however, as times change it is
The actual name of the disease is poliomyelitis (Reis, 3). It is an inflammation of the nerve cells of the spinal cord (Reis, 3). Polio cases were increasing each year. 1916 was the first major US outbreak of polio; over 27,000 people were paralyzed and 6,000 people died (Mitka). In 1952 the worst year ever there were 57,628 cases reported, mostly children (Reis, 57). People were afraid to use public swimming pools and public places for fear of contracting polio. (online, Mitka) Polio is contracted “hand-to-mouth by oral ingestion from contact with infected oral secretions or feces contamination.” (p32-33, Reis) Symptoms like the flu, a fever, sore throat, upset stomach, headache and chills, were misdiagnosed. President Franklin D. Roosevelt contracted polio and lost the use of his legs. Survivors of polio ended up with leg braces or people forced to live in an iron lung. (online, Mitka) The affects of polio were devastating: paralysis and even death. (online, Mitka) Both the American public and the scientific community were frantically seeking a protective vaccine. (p127, Kleiss)
Polio can be dated back all the way to ancient Egypt, however, it was not until the early 1900s that the outbreak...

... middle of paper ...

...
Happy 50th Birthday, Salk Vaccine
By: Mike Mitka
Medical News and Perspectives
April 6, 2005
Published online
JAMA 2005 (Journal of American Medical Association??)

Obituary: Jonas Salk
By: R.E. Spier
Vaccine 1995
Volume 13, Number 16
Page 1487

People: Jonas E Salk
By: John Beale
The Lancet
Vol 346
July 1, 1995
Page 46

Splendid Solutions: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio
By: Jeffrey Kluger
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York, NY
c. 2004

Jonas Salk, Microbiologist
By: Ronald A. Reis
Infobase Publishing
New York, NY
c. 2006

Jonas Salk: Discoverer of the Polio Vaccine
By: Carmen Bredson
Enslow Publishers, Inc.
Hillside, NJ
c. 1993

Jonas Salk: Creator of the Polio Vaccine
By: Salvatore Tocci
Enslow Publishers, Inc.
Berkeley Heights, NJ
c. 2003

About Jonas Salk
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
http://www.salk.edu/about/jonas_salk.html

Show More
Related

  • Solomon Radasky Biography

    637 Words  | 2 Pages

    Solomon Radasky was born on May 17, 1910 in Warsaw, Poland. He lived in Praga which was a city across the river. He had a store in Warsaw where he would make fur coats. He had 78 people in his family and he was the only one to survive the holocaust. He had two brothers Moishe and Baruch and three sisters by the names of Sarah, Leah, and Rivka. His parents names were Toby and Jacob.

    Read More

  • Summary Of David Oshinsky's Polio

    838 Words  | 2 Pages

    At first polio was a troubling prospect when it first reared its ugly head in the United States of America. In a noble effort to be rid of polio, America as a whole was to adopt stringent sanitation measures. Everywhere, especially the home was to be spotless and clean in order to try and prevent the contraction of polio. This coupled with the view that America as a western nation seemed impervious to such a lowly disease tried to assuage American fear of the disease. Despite the measures commonly adopted throughout the myriad of cities and towns, polio still managed to spread around the country and wreak havoc taking thousands of lives. An outbreak that ravaged America claimed nearly 27,000 lives in a terrible reckoning before it finally subsided. This and several other troubling outbreaks

    Read More

  • Fred Korematsu

    905 Words  | 2 Pages

    On December 8, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor which set off a series of chain reactions. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was concerned about Japanese spies hiding in the United states and his solution was to establish Executive Order 9066 which authorized military commanders to define “military areas” and to exclude anyone from those areas. Korematsu v. the United States was a result of Executive Order 9066 which relocated over 120,000 persons of Japanese descent. Fred Korematsu refused to be relocated and suffered consequences. About 62 years later, the case of Hamdi v. Rumsfeld arises and with it follows the question; has the government learned from their mistakes. Considering that Yaser Hamdi was captured and detained without proper rulings until 2 years after, the public would say that the government has forgotten their mistakes of mass incarceration and neglects the consequences of their actions. The government has forgotten the effects of Korematsu v. United states and has not learned the lesson of what became of the Executive Order 9066 and its effect on Japanese Americans as well as history.

    Read More

  • David Belasco

    576 Words  | 2 Pages

    David Belasco was born in San Fransisco, California, on July 25,1853. Hisparents had come to California from London in the gold rush. Belasco grew upin San Fransisco and Victoria, British Columbia. His early education in a RomanCatholic monastery influenced his simple mode of dress and helped earn him the nickname Bishop of Broadway. He had some experience as a child actor, and from 1873 to 1879 worked in a number of San Fransisco theaters as everything from call boy and script copier to actor, stage manager, and playwright. He paid further theatrical dues in the time he spent as a "theatrical vagabond" (Belasco's term), acting in small theatrical companies trouping through the mining camps and frontier settlements of the Pacific Slope. He recited poetry, sang, danced, painted and built scenery, and played everything from Hamlet to Fagin in Oliver Twist and Topsy in Uncle Tom's Cabin. In 1879, with James A. Herne, his first important collaborator, he wrote the popular melodrama Hearts of Oak.

    Read More

  • American Homefront During World War II

    1124 Words  | 3 Pages

    The death rate was on the decline and life expectancy rose during this period. New medical developments were made with the federal funding of medical research in which penicillin and streptomycin were developed. These advancements in medicine have cured many bacterial infections and severe illnesses. Later, in 1952, Jonas Salk introduced a polio vaccine. There was a vast migratory pattern among many Americans during this time period.

    Read More

  • The Medical Advances of World War I

    652 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the other notable important advances was the “Conquest of Polio” this disease usually caused paralysis in the people who contracted the virus. Back then there...

    Read More

  • Jonathan Larson

    1432 Words  | 3 Pages

    Composer-lyricist-librettist of RENT, a rock opera inspired by "La Bohème", Jonathan Larson was born in Mt. Vernon, New York, and raised in suburban White Plains, the second child of Allan and Nanette Larson. Both Jonathan's parents loved music and theatre, and show tunes and folk music were always playing in their home. Jon and his sister Julie took piano lessons during elementary school. He could play by ear, and his teacher encouraged him to experiment with rhythm, harmony, and setting words. By high school, he was called the "Piano Man" after the enormously popular song of that title by Billy Joel; he also played tuba in the school marching band. Active in school and community theatre, Jonathan had major roles in several musicals.

    Read More

  • Paralysis Epidemic of the 1950s: Poliomyelitis

    970 Words  | 2 Pages

    Poliomyelitis is a virus that infects the nerves of the spinal cord, and brain which leads to paralysis and or death (Piddock, 2004). Poliomyelitis is best known today as Polio, and Infantile Paralysis. Tonsillectomy polio would take over the lymph nodes in order to spread the infection throughout the body, leading to muscle paralysis in the limbs, and in some cases respiratory failure. Bulbar polio was a much more severe form, it affected the top of the spinal cord which caused paralysis and inability to swallow fluids (Rifkind, 2005). Polio was transmitted through ingesting materials contaminated by the virus found in feces. Children would play in public swimming pools, and ingest the contaminated water which lead to infection (Piddock, 2004). After the person ingested the virus, it would travel their intestinal tract, and eventually compromise their lymph nodes, making them unable to fight off the virus. Symptoms were like those of the flu, such as fever, headache, and upset stomach. The minority of people were able to let the virus run its course and it would be passed through their feces like any other virus. Others weren’t so lucky, those with compromised immune systems were unable to fight off the virus, the lymph nodes would fail to protect the nervous system causing paralysis once it reached the spinal cord (Piddock, 2004). Poliomyelitis has since then been eliminated in the United States because of the polio vaccine that is giv...

    Read More

  • Kiki Smith

    1094 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kiki Smith is a feminist artist who is known for using the human body and its substances in ways that no other artist has before. “This work displays often grotesque and uncomfortable themes that would usually only be seen in private, however socially suppressed ideas towards things such as defecation and human fragility are often purposely overlooked today.” (Feminist Blog). Some of the issues she displays through art are abortion, AIDS, gender, race and women. Smith is known for using animals, fairytale icons, and other elements of nature in her artwork.

    Read More

  • Jerzy Kosinski

    2580 Words  | 6 Pages

    Jerzy Kosinski was born in Poland in 1933 to Russian parents who had fled the revolution. He was separated from his family when the Nazis invaded in 1939. For six years he wandered form village to village scorned by East European gypsies who feared his hawk like face and penetrating eyes. He survived German terror by his wits and he was struck dumb from the shock that he underwent from this six-year period of wandering. He was mute from age nine to fourteen.(New Yorker)

    Read More

  • Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism

    3078 Words  | 7 Pages

    Vaccines have been used to prevent diseases for centuries, and have saved countless lives of children and adults. The smallpox vaccine was invented as early as 1796, and since then the use of vaccines has continued to protect us from countless life threatening diseases such as polio, measles, and pertussis. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2010) assures that vaccines are extensively tested by scientist to make sure they are effective and safe, and must receive the approval of the Food and Drug Administration before being used. “Perhaps the greatest success story in public health is the reduction of infectious diseases due to the use of vaccines” (CDC, 2010). Routine immunization has eliminated smallpox from the globe and led to the near removal of wild polio virus. Vaccines have reduced some preventable infectious diseases to an all-time low, and now few people experience the devastating effects of measles, pertussis, and other illnesses.

    Read More

  • Poliomyelitis Essay

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Conclusion, Understanding Polio’s etiology, history and epidemiology, as well as proper treatments will assist in avoiding its return. Although polio has been known to substantially affect a wide population in a small amount of time, eradication of this disease may also be accomplished in a short period of time. Scientists and medical professionals continue to research this disease in order to better understand and maintain it for many years to come. There are still aspect of the disease people do not understand that may be vital for the future of a polio-free world.

    Read More

  • The Good, The Bad, And The Hela

    1683 Words  | 4 Pages

    The first discovery was made in 1952, in the developing field of virology. Virology is the study of viruses and how they behave. To develop the vaccines for the viruses, researchers infected the HeLa cells with many types of infections, such as measles, mumps, and the infamous poliomyelitis virus, also known as Polio. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), whose mission is to save lives and protect people’s health security, Polio is a "crippling and potentially deadly infectious disease caused by a virus that spreads from person to person invading the brain and spinal cord and causing paralysis" (Freeman). Jonas Salk, who was a virologist at the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP), used inactivated viruses (virus particles grown in culture and then killed by a form of heat) to create a polio vaccine. Salk drew blood from about two million children, which the NFIP checked for immunization.Through the collection of many HeLa cells and trial and error, the polio vaccine wa...

    Read More

  • Summary Of Polio

    1562 Words  | 4 Pages

    Polio: An American Story describes a struggle to find a vaccine on polio through several researchers’ lives, and over the course of many years. The second thesis is the struggle between Salk and Sabin, two bitter rivals who had their own vaccine that they believed would cure polio. The author David M. Oshinsky, is describing how difficult it was to find the cure to a horrifying disease, which lasted from the Great Depression until the 1960’s. Oshinsky then writes about how foundations formed as fundraisers, to support polio research. Lastly, the author demonstrates how researchers were forced to back track on multiple occasions, to learn more about polio.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On The Importance Of Vaccines

    407 Words  | 1 Pages

    Many people think that some diseases like polio are no longer around. This is not true.

    Read More

More about Jonas Salk

Open Document