The polio vaccine 50 years later: Key player reflects on vaccine's progress

On the 50th anniversary of the announcement that the Salk vaccine could protect against polio, the development team's sole survivor reflects on what was achieved.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. April 11, 2005.

Half a century ago in the United States, polio paralyzed more than 16,000 children and killed nearly 2,000 annually. That doesn't happen any more, and this achievement is due in part to the work of noted virologist Julius S. Youngner, ScD, the only survivor of the core team who, led by Jonas Salk, MD, developed an effective injectable killed virus vaccine.

Dr. Youngner joined Dr. Salk's team in 1949 and was responsible for much of the work toward large-scale production of the vaccine and methodology for safety testing of batches.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the April 12, 1955, announcement that the Salk vaccine worked. The results were later published in the Aug. 6, 1955, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dr. Youngner, who is now a distinguished service professor emeritus of molecular genetics and biochemistry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, spoke with AMNews.

Question: Why did you become so interested in developing a polio vaccine?

Answer: When it was indicated that we could have large-scale production of polio virus in cell culture, then it became a reality. Before that, polio virus had only been produced in monkey nervous tissue, and using that as the vaccine source had been tried in the '30s with some very unpleasant consequences.

Q: Were you working on other diseases at the time as well?