Oral poliovirus vaccine. History of its development and prospects for eradication of poliomyelitis

Abstract

On this occasion, I have chosen a subject to which I have devoted a great part of my life. In pursuing studies on poliomyelitis since 1931, I have been motivated not only by the scientist's desire to achieve a greater understanding of natural phenomena, but also by the humanitarian's desire to eliminate a crippling disease like poliomyelitis as a source of human misery. The objective was to determine whether poliomyelitis, which has probably coexisted with human beings since earliest evolutionary times, could be eradicated in the same way that smallpox had been eradicated from many parts of the world. To achieve this it was necessary to have full intelligence of the natural history of the polioviruses, ie, where they multiplied in sufficient quantity to maintain themselves in nature, how they entered the human body, where they multiplied in the human body and how they left it, how many distinct antigenic