On April 12 1955, the world was informed that the Salk polio vaccine was up to 90% effective in preventing paralytic polio. At the time, it was hailed as one of the most anticipated announcements in medical history, and led to the overcoming of one of the most feared infectious diseases in American History. In the five years leading up to the announcement, there were an estimated 25,000 cases of paralytic polio per year in America. In 1969, not a single death from polio was reported in the US.
The Polio Vaccine and the University of Michigan
While the first polio vaccine – using an inactivated virus – was developed by Dr. Jonas Salk at the University of Pittsburgh, the announcement was made in the University of Michigan Rackham Auditorium by director of the University of Michigan School of Public Health Poliomyelitis Vaccine Evaluation Center director, Dr. Thomas Francis Jr.
In the upcoming NOVA Special on vaccines (Vaccines – Calling The Shots, airing 9/8 central, September 10 on PBS), footage of that 1955 announcement features prominently. And through some smart editing, it is juxtaposed with an interview with U-M School of Public Health professor Brian Zikmund-Fisher, sitting in the same auditorium 59 years later, talking about current challenges around vaccines and infectious diseases.
The Big House
Brian, an expert in risk and decisions, features prominently in the documentary, including a sequence shot in the midst of 100,000 football fans in the Michigan Big House (although you’ll have to watch the documentary to discover why).
Speaking as a University of Michigan professor in the School of Public Health, the Michigan connection is clearly important in my totally unbiased opinion (did someone say “Go Blue!”?). What is more important though is the inclusive and sensitive approach to vaccines and infectious diseases this documentary promises to bring to the issue. Going by the Australian version Jabbed, by writer, producer and director Sonya Pemberton, Wednesday’s NOVA special will succeed in encouraging people to re-examine what they think about vaccines and their use.
The Cutter Incident
Jabbed certainly didn’t shy away from hard truths (and I suspect that the NOVA version will likewise have the same stamp of honesty about it). In telling the story of the first polio vaccine, it also tells the story of the Cutter Incident that led on the heels of the University of Michigan announcement.
On April 12 1055, Cutter Laboratories became one of a number of companies licensed to produce the new Salk polio vaccine. On April 27, the vaccine was withdrawn, after a number of vaccine-associated cases of polio were reported.
Through poor quality control, Cutter Laboratories had released 120,000 doses of vaccines containing the live polio virus. Of the children who received the vaccine, 40,ooo developed a relatively mild form of polio, six developed paralytic poliomyelitis, and five children died from polio. The disease also spread through local communities as a result of the Cutter vaccine, leading to a further 113 cases of paralysis and five deaths. It’s been described as one of the worst pharmaceutical disasters in U.S. history.
Fighting Infectious Diseases
The Cutter Incident is a sobering reminder that the tools we have to combat infectious diseases aren’t risk free – although in this case human error was the root cause of the disaster, not the technology. By including this mis-step in Jabbed (and, I presume, the NOVA special), Pemberton eloquently emphases the need for honesty and engagement between all stakeholders in the fight against infectious diseases, if we don’t want to return to a society where parents constantly worry that their child will be the next victim.
You can watch Vaccines – Calling The Shots (and the Michigan connection) on Wednesday September 8, 9/8 central, on PBS.
Image: Dr. Thomas Francis Jr. and Dr. Jonas E. Salk at polio evaluation meeting.; BL005661. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/b/bhl/x-bl005661/bl005661. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed: September 08, 2014.