Beyond the ordinary.

THE CREATOR OF THE POLIO VACCINE
Jonas Salk is known best as the developer of the first successful vaccine against polio, but he also made many other contributions in the field of medicine. Though Salk’s family was poor and lacked formal education, they urged their children to work and study hard. Though he wanted to become a lawyer, he eventually entered into a medical school. It was when polio was one of the greatest cripplers and killers in the world. Many died and most were unable to walk because the disease weakened the muscles and the nerves.Salk felt the compelling desire to develop a polio vaccine. He often worked twenty hours a day, seven days a week, trying one serum after another. His colleagues were often astonished by his tireless and painstaking efforts. Salk’s break-through came in 1953 when he discovered a vaccine using dead polio virus cells to help the body’s immune system create antibodies to fight off live virus cells.The question was raised then as to whether the new found vaccine could be injected into humans. To prove his confidence in the vaccine, he injected the same into himself and his children due to the objections from government authorities. The vaccine proved successful as everybody who received the test vaccine started producing anti-bodies against the virus. Thus the vaccine for polio came into existence. All what Salk had to say was, “Hope lies in dreams and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams a reality. "