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Whose Invention Was the Polio Vaccine?

medicinehistory

Quick Answer

Jonas Salk developed the first successful polio vaccine, announced in 1955.

The Full Story

American virologist Jonas Salk developed the first effective inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), which was declared safe and effective on 12 April 1955 after a massive trial involving 1.8 million children. Albert Sabin later developed an oral polio vaccine (OPV, 1961) using live attenuated virus, which became the standard for global eradication campaigns. Polio paralysed or killed hundreds of thousands of children annually before vaccination. Salk famously declined to patent the vaccine, saying, "Could you patent the Sun?"

Key Facts

1.The 1955 announcement was made exactly 10 years after Franklin Roosevelt's death — Roosevelt himself had been paralysed by polio.
2.Wild polio cases have been reduced by over 99 % since 1988.
3.As of the mid-2020s, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

YouTube Angle

Suggested video title for this topic:

"The Man Who Said No to a Patent — Jonas Salk and the Polio Vaccine"

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