- Person
- Albert Sabin
- Lived
- 1906–1993
- Field
- Virology
- From
- Polish-American
The story
The injected polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk, made from killed virus and licensed in 1955, protected individuals who completed the full course from paralysis. But it did not stop the virus from multiplying in the intestine. Vaccinated people could still carry the infection and pass it on, so the injected vaccine could not halt an active epidemic.
Albert Sabin had shown in 1939 that poliovirus lives and multiplies in the gut. His vaccine used live but weakened viruses of each of the three types, swallowed rather than injected. It produced immunity both in the bloodstream and in the intestine, so it broke the chain of transmission. It was also cheaper to make and far easier to give. No needle or syringe was needed: drops of the liquid were placed on a sugar cube to mask the bitter taste. The practice is said to have inspired the song "A Spoonful of Sugar" in the 1964 film Mary Poppins.
At first the three single-type vaccines were given separately. In 1964 a single trivalent oral vaccine protecting against all three types was approved. After mass campaigns abroad had proven it, the oral vaccine rapidly replaced the injected one in the United States during the 1960s and became the vaccine of choice there for about three decades. The last case of wild polio in the United States was reported in 1979.
Because it could stop the virus circulating, the oral vaccine made it possible for health authorities to imagine eradicating polio from the whole world. When the Global Polio Eradication Initiative began in 1988, oral drops were its main tool. By 2001 some 575 million children, almost a tenth of the world's population, had received about two billion doses.
Like any live vaccine, it carries a very small risk: in rare cases the weakened virus can mutate back to a form that causes paralysis, and in under-vaccinated communities it can circulate and change over time. For that reason, as wild polio has retreated, health authorities have shifted increasingly toward injected vaccines. But the cheap sugar-cube vaccine did the heavy lifting that brought the disease to the brink.
Why it matters
A vaccine that could be given in a few drops, without needles or trained nurses, made mass immunisation campaigns possible in some of the poorest places on Earth.
About Albert Sabin
Białystok-born virologist whose cheap, oral polio vaccine, given on a sugar cube and never patented, became the backbone of the global drive to eradicate polio.
More about Albert Sabin
- Albert Sabin trained the scientist who unmasked RSVAlbert Sabin's Cincinnati laboratory trained Robert Chanock, his favourite “scientific son”, who later showed that RSV causes severe respiratory disease in young children.
- Albert Sabin gave his oral polio vaccine free of chargeAlbert Sabin developed the oral polio vaccine, cheap and easy to give on a sugar cube, and gave it free of charge without profiting from its sale.
- Albert Sabin showed polio begins in the gutBy studying the bodies of polio victims, Albert Sabin showed that the virus multiplies first in the intestine, an insight that shaped the oral vaccine he later created.
- Albert Sabin tested his polio vaccine on himself firstBefore asking anyone else to take his live oral polio vaccine, Albert Sabin swallowed it himself, and his family and colleagues were among the very first recipients.
- Albert Sabin fought tropical viruses for the US ArmyIn the Second World War Albert Sabin served on the Army's Neurotropic Virus Commission, studying dengue and sandfly fever and developing early vaccines and preventive measures.
- Sabin crossed the Iron Curtain to test his polio vaccineAt the height of the Cold War, Albert Sabin shared his vaccine strains with Soviet scientists, and about 77 million Soviet children were vaccinated in 1959–1961.
- Sabin Sundays brought free polio drops to a whole cityOn Sunday, April 24, 1960, Cincinnati began handing out Albert Sabin's oral polio vaccine for free, and about 180,000 local children were soon vaccinated.
- Sabin's vaccine became the backbone of polio eradicationWhen the global drive to eradicate polio began in 1988, about 350,000 children a year were still paralysed. Albert Sabin's oral vaccine became the campaign's main tool.
Sources
- Albert Bruce Sabin: The Man Who Made the Oral Polio Vaccine Emerging Infectious Diseases (CDC)
- Albert Sabin Wikipedia
- Polio eradication Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.