Father of polio vaccine sees AIDS cure ahead
Father of polio vaccine
sees A~IOS cure ahead
FROM AP AND LOCAL REPORTS
Dr. Jonas Salk. the researcher
who 40 years ago today announced
from Ann Arbor the
successful test of a polio vaccine,
predicts scientists will defeat
AIDS and other diseases in comingyears.
Less certain, he says, is victory
over big killers like war,
crime and drugs. •
"I am a perennial optimist,"
the 80-year-old virologist said
Tuesday in a teleconference.
"We certainly have the knowledge.
The question is whether
we have the wisdom."
Salk returned this week to the
University of Michigan, where 40
years ago he and colleagues announced
victory over the
scourge of polio. The nerve-des~
dts._ease ~truck 57,600
Americans in 1952, killing thousands
and leaving tens of thousands
paralyzed. Fearful parents
once kept their children indoors
to avoid exposure to the virus.
In 1953, Salk announced the
development of a vaccine that
used killed viruses to stimulate
people's immune systems. He,
his wife and three sons received
an injection of the vaccine, as did
1.8 million school children in
1954.
On April 12, 1955, he announced
that the trial found the
vaccine was safe and effective.
The university and the March
of Dimes, which paid the $1.7
million cost of Salk's polio research,
planned to honor him today
in a ceremony marking the
anniversary of that breakthrough.
The organization was
expected to announce at the ceremony
an annual $100,000 prize
to be presented in Salk's name to
an investigator who makes major
advances in developmental
AP FILE PHOTO
DR. JONAS SALK
... 'a perennial optimist'
biology.
The event today is scheduled
for the U-M's Rackham Auditorium,
where Salk made the original
announcement.
Salk, who stepped down as a
director from the Salk Institute
of Biological Studies that he
founded in California, began his
AIDS research in 1986. AIDS is a
more difficult target, he said.
"It's a more complex problem,
it's a different kind of threat,"
Salk said. "Polio cripples limbs,
and the AIDS virus cripples the
immune system, thus rendering
people susceptible to all kinds of
infections."
Salk said he is optimistic scientists
will crack the secrets of
AIDS and other diseases caused
by microorganisms.
"My own view is we will overcome.
We will have enough ingenuity
to overcome these threats
of nature," he said.