BACK IN THE 50’S POLIO VACCINE DEVELOPMENT WAS ALL WE TALKED ABOUT
Yes, I remember back in those days when the vaccine first came out, the mistakes that were made that were the cause of some people actually catching the disease and then the corrections made by Dr. Salk until finally a successful vaccine was introduced…it was all over the newspapers, front and center, we talked about it in our classroom in school, our families had it as their main topic of conversation.
So, how come this is not happening now with the development of an HIV vaccine?
In 1921, outbreaks of poliomyelitis plagued America. That summer, a young politician named Franklin Delano Roosevelt was vacationing with his family at their Campobello estate. After an exhausting day fighting a local forest fire, taking a cold swim for relief, and then lounging in his wet swimsuit at home, he went to bed feeling as though he had contracted a cold. In a few days Roosevelt found out he had polio.
Jonas Salk, developer of first successful vaccine.
Photo by March of Dimes
Birth Defects Foundation, 1996.
Dr. Jonas Salk had begun his medical research career studying immunology. In 1947, while at the University of Pittsburgh, he began his research on poliovirus. His research was greatly helped in 1949, when a method of growing poliovirus in cell culture, instead of having to use primarily monkeys for research, was discovered. Salk needed to find a way to process the viruses so that they were less infectious, before using them in a vaccine. In 1952, Salk was the first to develop a successful vaccine using a mixture of the three types of virus, grown in monkey kidney cultures. He developed a process using formalin, a chemical that inactivated the whole virus.
What followed was massive testing of the vaccine in clinical trials in the United States and parts of Canada, begun in 1954. The scope of the trials was unprecedented in medical history. The results were dramatic. Cases of polio fell spectacularly in the vaccinated test groups. In 1955, the government quickly granted permission for the vaccine to be distributed to the children of our country.
On April 12, 1955, Dr. Jonas Salk’s vaccine for polio was declared “safe, effective and potent.”
Since then, polio vaccination has become commonplace and we have seen the elimination of the disease altogether. A similar situation exists now with HIV – AIDS. Scientists have been struggling to find drugs that will fight the disease if not altogether cure it. Thee exists a myriad of retroviral drugs presently that can conceiveable extend the life of a person infected with the HIV virus for decades.
But at the same time, the drug manufacturers that have put out these drugs had a lot of expense in developing and testing them. Their bottom line as with any privately owned company is the pursuit of profits but the drug manufacturers have gone a bit too far as have those that manufacture and market other life saving drugs for diabetis, heart conditions, blood pressure, etc. It has become a veritable gold mine for them and it is not uncommon to hear of someone’s monthly drug bill to be $3,000 or $4,000 and even more.
It is kind of blackmail, yes, you can remain alive as long as you buy our drugs and pay the price we are asking…in this case the profit is an obscene one. Some of these drugs have a 3,000% mark-up or more. It has also become obvious that cures for cancer, heart disease, diabetis and AIDS is not going to happen anytime soon as long as these drug manufacturers are making such outlandish profits. It is not in their interest that the development of a vaccine or a cure for any of these illnesses obtain any kind of publicity.
“Specializing in development of vaccines against diseases for which none currently exist, GeoVax has reported considerable success with its vaccine for HIV/ AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Disease Syndrome)”
Enter into the picture the divisiveness and polarization that the Republicans are injecting into politics. The emergence of the repugnant Tea Baggers and their antics, the pervasive demonstrations of racism, xenophobia, homophobia and divisiveness is taking the media by storm. These are headline news, the Arizona unconstitutional law, the Obama was not born in America crap, the death panels and now the anti-Muslim wave they are unleashing. All of these things are responsible for not giving something as earthshakingly important as the creation of a vaccine or a cure for HIV more importance, they are robbing the HIV elimination of the headlines and giving us hatred and division instead.
SOURCES: www.geovaxlabs.com
http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/CC/polio.php
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4c/Wisdom-cover1.jpg
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/April/Polio-Vaccination-Introduced-to-Public.html
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