[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 42 (Tuesday, April 12, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E622]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SUCCESSFUL SALK POLIO VACCINE TRIALS

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                          HON. JOHN D. DINGELL

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 12, 2005

  Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to mark a historic day in the 
history of public health. Fifty years ago today, Dr. Thomas Francis, 
Jr. announced from the University of Michigan's Rackham Auditorium 
words that people around the globe were waiting to hear: the Salk polio 
vaccine works. With those simple words, eradication efforts began in 
earnest to rid the world of this terrible disease.
  For generations in the United States, the polio disease struck fear 
in the hearts of millions of American parents and children. Late every 
summer, hot weather brought with it a rash of new cases of paralytic 
polio. No one knew how to I prevent polio, nor was there a cure. 
Epidemics of polio could devastate whole communities. For example, an 
epidemic struck the state of New York in 1916 killing 9,000 people and 
leaving 27,000 disabled. In the 1940s and 50s, the number of cases 
reported in the United States ranged from 40,000 to 60,000 each year. 
This was the state of our nation affected by polio pre-1955.
  Mr. Speaker, all that began to change in the early 1950s. At that 
time, Dr. Jonas Salk, a postdoctoral student of Dr. Francis's at the 
University of Michigan, developed a promising vaccine against 
poliomyelitis in his laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh. In 
what has been called the largest cooperative effort undertaken in 
peacetime, the Salk vaccine was tested in the most comprehensive field 
trials ever conducted. Overseeing those trials was Dr. Francis, 
Director of the Poliomyelitis Vaccine Evaluation Center and founding 
chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan 
School of Public Health.
  Mr. Speaker, the polio field trials were unprecedented in scope and 
magnitude. Dr. Francis and his team of more than 100 statisticians and 
epidemiologists tabulated data received from hundreds of public health 
officials and doctors who participated in the study. The trials 
involved 1,830,000 children in 217 areas of the United States, Canada 
and Finland. No field trial of this scale has been conducted since.
  This historic event is a source of pride for the University of 
Michigan and the state of Michigan as a whole. Since that day fifty 
years ago, polio has been nearly eradicated. In August 2002, there were 
no confirmed cases reported in the United States, and only 483 
confirmed cases of acute poliomyelitis reported to authorities 
worldwide. These successes all began with the announcement from Rackham 
Auditorium fifty years ago today.

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