Seven years of searching: how a Russian-speaking Jew in the USA invented a vaccine that saved millions of children

Jonas Salk is the man who saved childhood. The mad scientist, fanatic who invented the world's first polio vaccine, believed in his work so much that he vaccinated himself and his three children with the experimental vaccine, reports isralove.

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Millions of mothers around the world know this name. Jonas Edward Salk is the man to whom hundreds of thousands of children around the world owe their lives.

He believed and won! Defeated one of the most terrible childhood diseases.

Jonas Salk - one of the most famous American researchers in the field of medicine - was born in New York in 1914. His parents are emigrants with Jewish roots who arrived in the city of the big apple from the Russian Empire. In the hope of knowing a better life, they grabbed any job, but, having no academic education, they could not boast of high incomes. At the same time, children have always been a priority for Dora and Daniel Salk - they were ready for anything, if only they could break out "into the people." Jonas and his two siblings, Herman and Lee, spent their childhood on the move: East Harlem, the Bronx, Queens. Growing up in not the most prosperous areas of New York, they knew how to stand up for themselves from childhood and always remained a support and support for each other.

“As a child, I was not interested in science. I was only interested in human things, the human side of nature, if you like, and I continue to be interested in that. This is what motivates me,” said the scientist.

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Father, master of tailoring women's clothing, comesI worked very hard to provide my children with a good education. Jonas Salk first graduated from Townsend Harris High School, then entered the City College of New York. For many emigrants, this college was the ultimate dream - it was jokingly called “the haven of Jewish minds.” They provided high-quality and free education. However, a bachelor's degree was not enough for Jonas. He became seriously interested in medicine. But not from the practical side (Jonas never dreamed of having a large practice and making a lot of money). Salk was interested in medical scientific research. And he went to medical school at New York University.

Salk received his doctorate in medicine and a two-year internship in 1939. Upon completion of the practice, Jonas leaves practical medicine and devotes himself entirely to science. Beginning in 1941, he delved into the study of viruses.

Science

Before Salk, few people were engaged in subject-matter research on viruses. Actually, the term "virology" itself was coined by Jonas Salk. Initially, he is engaged in this topic at the University of Michigan, then at Pittsburgh and California Universities.

PeThe first results were obtained already in 1943. Jonas Salk worked with Thomas Francis to create, test, test, and produce a ready-to-use influenza vaccine.

During World War II, the Salk vaccine was given to all members of the United States Army. Salk's vaccine proved to be very effective. However, Jonasm did not stop.

victory over polio

In 1948, the National Infantile Paralysis Foundation provided funds for research on various types of the polio virus. The purpose of the commissioned research was only to study. However, Salk, while working on the project, saw an opportunity not only to research and catalog the types, but also to make a vaccine that could save hundreds of thousands of children's lives.

He isolated a group of viruses, killed them with formalin, and based on dead viruses created a vaccine, which, as it turned out, was able to stimulate the production of its own antibodies against the causative agent in the child's body.

Salk believed in the success of his discovery so much that after trial tests he was not afraid to vaccinate himself and his three children with the vaccine. All subjects tolerated the vaccine perfectly. The finished product was introduced to the world in 1955. The scientist claimed that vaccination against polio, carried out twice, leads to the development of protective antibodies in 90% of cases. If the Salk vaccine is administered three times, then the production of antibodies is observed in 99% of cases.

This project was truly impressive in scale: about two million children who took part in the research, twenty thousand doctors and paramedics, hundreds of thousands of volunteers - a serious campaign unfolded!

In 1956, a campaign began in the United States to mass vaccinate children against polio. What was the surprise of the world community when, after 5 years, the incidence of poliomyelitis among children in the United States decreased by 96 percent! It was a real sensation. The use of the Salk vaccine against polio began not only in the United States, but also in Europe. The results were amazing even though by 1960 only 50% of children had been vaccinated.

For this development, Jonas Salk was awarded all sorts of awards: the Lasker Prize (analogous to the Nobel Prize in the USA), the Gold Medal of the US Congress, the Medal of Freedom, which he personally received from the hands of President Carter, the Koch Prize, the Order of the French Legion and many other awards. However, the main reward for him personally was the opportunity to open the Institute for Biological Research at the University of California.

Jonas began to be asked for interviews even more often, Warner Bros. Pictures and 20th Century Fox wanted to make a film about him. The scientist joked: “It’s better to make such films after the death of the hero. It’s okay, I’ll wait.”

The Institute began operating in 1963 and was headed by Jonas Salk. The scientist-researcher managed to trace the ways of the spread of the virus and thereby radically turn the view of scientists on virology in principle and on the practical application of this area of ​​medicine in particular.

A few years later, Salk's polio vaccine was replaced by the more modern Sabin vaccine. However, this did not detract from the importance of Salk's discovery, which revolutionized virology.

After completing work on a polio vaccine, the Salk Institute became closely involved in the development of a vaccine for cancer and, later, for AIDS.

“I imagined myself as a virus or a cancer cell and tried to understand what it would be like,” the scientist said.

Since the mid-80s, Salk has concentrated all his efforts on the work of finding a vaccine for AIDS. He kept saying, "We have to do this before I die." At the same time, the virologist opened the firm Immune Response, where immunological preparations against the "plague of the 1995th century" were first developed. By XNUMX, the Food and Drug Administration approved a randomized trial of Salk's Remune, based on parts of a killed virus. Alas, it was held only after the death of the scientist.

The scientist hoped and believed in the success of this project. Work in this direction continues even now, after the death of the great scientist. Now the institute, opened by the efforts of Jonas Salk in California, bears his name.

Unpleasant Incident

The scientist-researcher had to endure not only moments of glory. In one case of his vaccine, a patient contracted polio. Parents sued Salk, but all charges against the medical scientist were dropped. The blame for the incident was placed on the manufacturer of the vaccine, which violated the technology in its manufacture.

A little bit about personal

Jonas Salk got married the day after graduation. He had been waiting for this day for several years, because he met his future wife, Donna Lindsey Culpin, while studying at City College and immediately fell in love with the girl. He promised himself and her the word to marry as soon as he graduated from the university, and he kept his promise.

The couple lived happily and had three children. However, in 1968 they separated. The reason for the breakup was a woman. The former mistress of Pablo Picasso, Françoise Gilot, turned his head to the scientist. She raised two children of the great artist.

In 1970, Francoise Gilot and Jonas Salk legalized their relationship. They lived together until the end of their days.

On June 19, 1995, he wrote in his notebook: “How can I use my skills or allow others to use them to somehow improve the life of mankind in the future?” Salk died of heart failure four days later at the Green hospital in San Diego.

He could have become the richest man in the world if he had patented his invention, but he did not. But Jonas refused to patent the vaccine he developed, comparing it to trying to patent the sun.

“Is it possible to patent the Sun?” he said more than once.

A research scientist was buried in San Diego (California) at El Camino Memorial Park Cemetery.

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