“A scientist who is also a human being cannot rest while knowledge that could be used to reduce suffering sits on the shelf. » - Albert Sabin Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get the original essay At a time when polio was sweeping the planet and causing devastation, scientists began searching for a vaccine to end polio. 'epidemic. Despite many failed attempts and religious opposition, the genetic engineering of the 1952 polio vaccine was a triumph, as it ended the tragic spread of polio across the world. In 1894, the first polio epidemic appeared. There were 132 cases of permanent paralysis and eighteen deaths, but at that time doctors did not believe polio was contagious. Doctor Charles Caverly spoke of this, saying: "I find only one case in which more than one member of a family was affected with the disease, and as it generally occurred in families of more than one child and no effort to isolate was made, it is quite certain that it was not contagious. The lack of medical knowledge and understanding among doctors at that time contributed greatly to the rapid spread of the disease. Eleven years after the first outbreak, a Swedish doctor named Ivar Wickham made a revolutionary discovery about the contagious nature of polio. He published his two main research findings, the first being that polio was in fact contagious, and the second being that polio does not always present in its most severe form. Later, in 1908, two scientists named Karl Landsteiner, MD, and Erwin Popper, MD, successfully isolated and identified polio. They made this discovery by transmitting polio to a monkey, thus proving that polio was a virus. Finally, in 1910, the research of Dr. Simon Flexner gave rise to the idea of ​​a vaccine to combat polio. Polio continued to spread around the world, with between 25,000 and 50,000 new cases per year. In the most extreme cases, polio caused paralysis and death, and in the mildest cases it manifested with flu-like symptoms. In 1916, a massive polio epidemic swept the United States, causing 27,000 cases and 6,000 deaths. A Los Angeles Times statement said: "Numerous inspectors...stationed themselves at railroad stations, ferries, and landings along the Delaware River...to bar all children under 16 from attempting to cross the border into Pennsylvania without a health certificate. » Cities began taking many precautions to protect their citizens when the dangers of polio became more evident. As infection and death rates continued to rise, so did the need for a vaccine. There were many failures before the correct engineering of the polio vaccine was discovered. The most significant failure occurred in 1955, when a field trial was conducted for the vaccine. 400,000 people, mostly children, received the Salk vaccine. The inactivated form of the virus proved defective as 40,000 of the children injected contracted the disease. The account of a child who suffered after the field trial is as follows: “Five days later, she developed a fever and a stiff neck. Six days later, his left arm was paralyzed. Seven days later she was placed in an iron lung and nine days later she was dead. This costly mistake permanently or prematurely crippled the lives of many children in the United States. However,.