Jonas Salk

During the time that he was attending medical school at New York University, Salk was invited to spend a year researching influenza. Influenza is an acute viral infection marked by inflammation of the respiratory tract and by fever, chills, and pain. This virus that causes flu had just been recently discovered and Salk, who during this time was really young, was intensely eager to learn about the virus. He wanted to know if the virus could be deprived of its ability to infect, while still giving immunity to the illness. Salk highly succeeded in this attempt, which became the basis for his later work on polio.

After completing medical school and his internship, Salk returned to the study of influenza, the flu virus. He returned in the University of Michigan where he studied virology under the distinguished Dr. Thomas Francis, which who, incidentally, would remain in Salk's corner for life. When World War II started, people feared that the flu epidemic that occurred in World War I would happen again. The development of vaccines controlled the spread of flu after the war and the epidemic of 1919 did not occur again.

After the war in 1947, Salk accepted an appointment to the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. While he was working there, Salk saw the chance to study poliomyelitis and develop a vaccine against polio with the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. He devoted the next eight years to the study of this decease.

In 1955 Salk's years of research paid off when human rights of the polio vaccine effectively protected a person from the poliovirus. When news of the discovery was made public on April 12, 1955, Salk was recognized as a miracle worker. He further attracted himself to the public by refusing to patent the vaccine. He did not want to profit personally from the discovery, but he wanted for the vaccine to be distributed as widely as possible.

The Salk vaccine composed of "death" poliovirus that was applied through an injection. But, a few years later the Sabin vaccine came out which was composed of a really weak poliovirus, and was applied orally. Although the Sabin vaccine seemed better, it was proven that this alive poliovirus sometimes would infect the person. With these effects of the Sabin vaccine, the Salk vaccine became the only one to be used.

Did you know that Albert Sabin was Jonas Salk rival? They both competed for the fame on who would get the credit for accomplishing the polio vaccine. But Salk was the first to discover the vaccine, which is why he got all the glory for it.

In 1963, Salk founded the Jonas Salk Institute for Biological Studies, an innovate center for medical and scientific research. In the next years to come, Jonas Salk continued to conduct research and publish books.

Jonas Salk dedicated part of his life in finding the cure for war--in his words, "Finding a cure for the cancer of the world." His scientific studies, great as they are, had become a secondary factor in Dr. Salk's life. He devoted most of his boundless energy traveling to international conferences and speaking to world leaders about the imminence of peace.

The world has recognized Jonas Salk's contribution to world peace. He has been honored with dozens of awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Nehru Award for International Understanding.

His books on peace and human survival include Man Unfolding, The Survival of the Wisest, World Population and Human Values and Anatomy of Reality: Merging of Intuition and Reason.

Dr. Salk gave the world hope for freedom from polio. He gave the world hope for freedom from global destruction. With great pride and honor, Women's International Center offered the Premiere Presentation of the Jehan Sadat Peace Award to Dr. Jonas Salk.