Jonas Salk

Jonas Salk was born on October 20, 1914 in New York City to Russian-Jewish immigrants. As the first member of his family to attend college, he developed a fascination with the flu virus and sought a way to eliminate its ability to infect people with influenza. After judge an appointment in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he began belonging with the National Foundation for childish paralysis and there began work on polio, the cure for which Jonas Salk would be know forever. In 1950, children throughout the United States were stricken with polio, or poliomyelitis.Those children who did not run out from the disease were left crippled. In some cases, adults contracted polio as well. One of the most famous examples was president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was left in a wheelchair after a bout with the disease. Salk created a polio vaccinum from a dead polio virus, which lost the ability to infect once it was killed. It did, however, obligate the ability to immunize any who were injecte d with the dead form of the virus. Later, other work was performed in order to create a make up vaccine that could be given orally (Salks vaccine had to be injected).The administration of this live vaccine failed, and Salks was used from that point on. Salk could have patented the vaccine and become a rich man rather, he refused to do so in order to get the vaccine out to those who needed it quickly. Jonas Salks polio vaccine has completely eliminated the disease provided the vaccine is given. After his supremacy with polio, Salk created the Jonas Salk Institute for Biological Studies and not only continued his research, but wrote umteen books as well. He passed away on June 23, 1995 at the age of 80.