To mark the 100th birthday of the man behind the polio vaccine, Google featured a cartoon depiction of Jonas Salk on its search page. Born on October 18, 1914 the American researcher and virologist joined a team working on a vaccine against polio in 1942 at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. He went on to head the Virus Research Lab at the University of Pittsburgh by 1947 and began preliminary testing of the polio vaccine in 1952.
Salk was able to identify three different polio viruses enabling him to develop a virus vaccine to combat the disease. In order to achieve this, he first grew and then destroyed polio viruses. The field trial for testing the vaccine was said to involve 20,000 health workers and over 1,800,000 school children, giving it historic status for its elaborate nature.
On April 12, 1955, the vaccine was declared a success and Salk, a miracle worker. Prior to the introduction of his vaccine, polio was second only to the atomic bomb as the greatest fear the American public harboured. The best known victim of polio prior to the introduction of the Salk vaccine was US President Franklin D. Roosevelt who was instrumental in funding the development of the vaccine.
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