{"id":10757,"date":"2014-10-23T11:57:55","date_gmt":"2014-10-23T18:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nnlm.gov\/pnr\/dragonfly\/?p=10757"},"modified":"2026-02-03T16:53:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T16:53:43","slug":"polio-then-and-now-from-salks-game-changing-vaccine-to-todays-resurgence","status":"archive","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/polio-then-and-now-from-salks-game-changing-vaccine-to-todays-resurgence\/","title":{"rendered":"Polio Then and Now: From Salk\u2019s Game-Changing Vaccine to Today\u2019s Resurgence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
\"polio-small\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Credit: CDC photo by S. Smith. Member of an Emergency Citizens Group in Oklahoma City, radioing information to headquarters during the 1963 Polio Eradication Campaign. Public Health Image Library (http:\/\/phil.cdc.gov), #1624.<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

This is a guest post written by Ann Glusker, MLIS, MPH, Reference and Consumer Health Librarian at The Seattle Public Library.<\/em><\/p>\n

The library world is a small one, and when I heard that a friend of a friend had worked with Jonas Salk, and that she would be interested in speaking about him and his work to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth, a program was born!\u00a0 What could be more timely than considering polio, which has yet to be eradicated, as we battle many other endemic diseases worldwide (and this was before the recent Ebola crisis)?\u00a0\u00a0 My planning partner and I asked Salk\u2019s colleague, Kathleen Murray, and also Dr. Linda Venczel, who has worked on polio eradication for much of her career, including with the CDC and the Gates Foundation, to speak.\u00a0 I\u2019m happy to say that you can hear them present their program, \u201cPolio Then and Now: From Salk\u2019s Game-Changing Vaccine to Today\u2019s Resurgence<\/a>\u201d this coming Tuesday, October 28, at 7 pm at the Seattle Public Library\u2019s Central (downtown) location.<\/p>\n

I have always been aware of polio, as my aunt had the disease (luckily with little lasting effect thanks to the innovations of Australian nurse Sister Elizabeth Kenny), but until I started reading more about it in advance of the program, I hadn\u2019t really realized how terrifying it was.\u00a0 It\u2019s been recognized for a long time, perhaps dating back to the early Egyptians, but the epidemics that caused widespread fear really began in the 20th century (ironically, it\u2019s thought, due to enhanced sanitation\u2014if children didn\u2019t get exposed to polio-laden water in very early life, when they still had maternal antibodies, it was harder for them to fight off the virus).\u00a0 While most people with the virus are asymptomatic, the progress of the disease can be devastating to others, causing paralysis and even death.\u00a0 Worst of all, it disproportionately affects children.<\/p>\n

Salk\u2019s achievement needs to be considered in this context; he was literally the savior of millions, but beyond that his vaccine allayed decades of fear. \u00a0It came at a time in post-WWII America when everything seemed possible\u2014walking on the moon, and triumphing over the most dread diseases.\u00a0 His accomplishment fit the zeitgeist of the that decade.\u00a0 And yet, almost 60 years after the vaccine was declared effective, polio (unlike smallpox, which was declared eradicated in 1980) still exists on earth; it is ALMOST (99%) eliminated<\/a>, but in these days of international travel, that\u2019s not a sure thing.\u00a0 It\u2019s unimaginable that it should have a resurgence, but it\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n

And, we still have more to learn about polio.\u00a0 There are advances still being made in preventing polio by means of a combination vaccine<\/a>, which may in turn have implications relating to the concerning increase in cases of Enterovirus 68<\/a>, a \u201ccousin\u201d of polio (along with the question of whether it is related to rare instances of child paralysis).\u00a0 And, the challenges in eradicating polio speak to many of the same issues we are seeing in areas stricken with Ebola: resource-poor areas, suspicion of modern technologies, widespread fear, and (in the case of Ebola) lack of an effective and cheap vaccine.<\/p>\n

Basically, the story of polio continues and is deeply relevant to our modern world.\u00a0 If you\u2019re interested in doing some more reading (on a popular level), we\u2019ve developed this booklist<\/a> and these blog posts on polio then<\/a> and now<\/a>, to support our program.\u00a0 And if you want to do more in-depth scientific reading, there\u2019s always your friend and mine, PubMed.\u00a0 MedlinePlus has a page on polio<\/a> as well.\u00a0 But, if nothing else, take a moment to appreciate that you probably haven\u2019t had to think much, in your lifetime (or at least your children\u2019s), about catching or dealing with polio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Credit: CDC photo by S. Smith. Member of an Emergency Citizens Group in Oklahoma City, radioing information to headquarters during the 1963 Polio Eradication Campaign. Public Health Image Library (http:\/\/phil.cdc.gov), #1624. This is a guest post written by Ann Glusker, MLIS, MPH, Reference and Consumer Health Librarian at The Seattle Public Library. The library world… Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10757","post","type-post","status-archive","format-standard","hentry","category-network-members","category-public-health-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22151,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10757\/revisions\/22151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}