The war on Polio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The war on Polio - Essay ExamplePresident Roosevelt thereby established the Warm Springs Foundation a polio hydrotherapy center. The organization grew rapidly since it received much support and funding from several sectors. At the time of Roosevelts death in 1945, the foundation had already been transformed into the National Foundation which had become a strong organization dealing with voluntary health issues and funding polio research in the unify States. In 1948, a significant discovery was made in the United States in relation to the stir against polio. The discovery was made by John Enders with a team of scientists from Harvard University. It was discovered that the virus which caused polio could be cultivated in the non-nervous tissues of the body. This important break with led to the subsequent manufacture of the Polio vaccine. Jonas Salk took a slap-up interest in this realization and created the formalin-inactive virus that became known as the Salks vaccine. Before its r elease into the market, the vaccine underwent very intensive trials and authorizations in a hollo to ensure that it could safely and efficaciously immunize people against the polio virus. Even though other vaccines became accepted for use against the Polio virus, the Salk vaccine was largely take in the United States in the fight against the disease. For instance, Albert Sabin came up with an Oral Poliovirus Vaccine (OPV) in 1948 which was extensively used across the world throughout the next ii decades. The OPV eventually ousted Salks IPV as the choice vaccine in the United States. This was basically out of the fact that OPV was administered orally and non through injection. Secondly, OPV used a powerful mechanism called herd immunity which could effectively provide immunity to unvaccinated people living near those already vaccinated. Even though the challenge of polio was much addressed in the United States, there was still the danger of the virus since frequent epidemics wer e a super acid occurrence in many separate of North Africa and Europe in the post-World War II days. In the mid-1950s the two vaccines effectively helped in combating the menace hitherto realized as a result of the polio virus (Orr 78). IPV and OPV have eradicated most cases of polio from several regions across the world. It must be admitted that the fight against polio is one of the most successful battles ever launched in the history of medicine and healthcare. In the developed world like the United States, it can effectively be stated that polio is no longer a great challenge compared to some of the emerging healthcare issues. However in certain parts of the world, polio is still a major challenge given the remoteness of these areas which limits their accessibility to the polio vaccines. In any case, the few cases of polio normally inform in the United States are basically imported from the developing world where the disease could still be a challenge. The war against polio mi ght not have been a really smooth affair throughout the long timeframe. Many challenges always characterized the undertaking from the onset of the research on the vaccines. These challenges range from the post-polio syndrome to the fiscal aspects in dealing with the challenge in the developing world. Nevertheless, amid all these limitations, it can be well argued that the research