A REMARKABLE SNAPSHOT OF THE CREATION OF T𝄹HE FIRST POLIO VAC▨CINE — WORKING MEMOS FROM JONAS SALK'S LAB, WITH A NOW-EMPTY VIAL FROM THE ORIGINAL POLIO VACCINE RUN

The memos in this archive document the painstaking work of identifying and typing the various poliovirus strains, a key step in the eventual production of a vaccine to protect against poliovirus-induced symptoms, including paralysis and death. The result of this work was the determination that there were three immunologically-distinct strains of poliovirus, a key finding that meant a comprehensive vaccine would need to protect against all three strains of polio. As a result, the vaccine that Salk's lab produced in 1954 — an empty vial of which is included in this lot — was a trivalent vaccine that worked against what came to be known as Types I, II, and III.

"Every summer, a tremendous fear would descend. Tens of thousands of children in the United States would fall ill with paralytic poliomyelitis, also known as infantile paralysis. The major outbreaks would start around Memorial Day and become more and more prevalent, spiking in August before essentially ending for the year around Labor Day...many who could return to school came in wheelchairs or leg braces."

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Although polio had existed for millennia, it was only recognized as a distinct disease in 1789, with largescale outbreaks in Europe and the United States occurring throughout the nineteenth and twentie💙th centuries. Often associated with 🍨childhood (thus the common name, "infantile paralysis"), most cases were mild or asymptomatic. However, about 1% of cases produced more serious symptoms, including the paralysis of limbs and, most devastatingly, the paralysis of the chest and abdomen, making breathing impossible without an iron lung.

It was the perennial fear of this disease, often striking down healthy children during the carefree days of summ൲er, that pushed the country headlജong into producing a vaccine.

"President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who contracted polio at age 39, convinced the world that he could still be a strong leader from his wheelchair. He founded the organization we now know as the March of Dimes. Originally named the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, FDR's organization had one goal in mind: produce a polio vaccine. They would do this by raising money and awarding grants to the best medical researchers in the field regardless of age, race, gender or religion."

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One of these researchers was Jonas Salk, a virologist at the University of Pittsburgh, whose lab was one of three chosen by the March of Dimes to work on the crucial task of poliovirus typing. This archive of memos, correspondences, letters, and more — many of them written and sent by Salk to his staff — details the crucial preliminary work that led to the creation of a polio vaccine.

Because of the efforts of Salk and his team to produce a vaccine, the numbers of reported cases dropped precipitously, from more than 57,000 in 1952 to only 2,525 in 1960. Cases would only drop from there, to the point that from 1979 to mid-2022, no c🍸ases of polio caused by wild poliovirus originated in the United States.

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