EDITORS: This news release is being issued in conjunction with one from the U.S. Postal Service. Reporters planning to cover the event should contact Amy Reyes prior to
ANN ARBOR—
When the U.S. Postal Service asked the American public to select what they considered the most important science and technology advancement of the 1950s, they chose the polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk.
The vaccine, which was tested at the University of Michigan School of Public Health by Salk’s mentor, Dr. Thomas Francis, revolutionized the battle against the deadly polio virus.
Few scientific advances can be compared to the impact the Salk vaccine had on the health of children in the 1950s. After having been inoculated, most children successfully fought off the disease that killed and paralyzed children throughout the world.
On The polio stamp will be presented at 1:30 p.m. at Rackham Auditorium on the U-M campus where the original announcement was made on Among those scheduled to speak include, Hunein F. Maassab, U-M professor of public health, who, like Jonas Salk, was mentored by Francis.
“I’d like to thank the U.S. Postal Service for honoring Jonas Salk with this postage stamp. Forty-four years ago at Rackham Auditorium, Dr. Francis and Dr. Salk announced to the world before the national and international press that the vaccine had conquered paralytic poliomyelitis. Dr. Francis’ efforts marked the beginning of vaccine development at the U-M School of Public Health which, today, continues its commitment to research in the prevention and control of viral diseases,” Maassab said.
Salk was a research scientist with Francis of the School of Public Health before joining the University of Pittsburgh in 1947 where the polio vaccine was developed. Salk found a mentor and a research collaborator in Francis, U-M professor of public health, who conducted the clinical trials of polio vaccine in 1954. The vaccine was proven to be 60 percent-90 percent effective in preventing paralytic polio. The Salk vaccine was the beginning of the end of the deadly disease. In 1961, Dr. Albert Sabin developed a live attenuated (weakened) oral polio vaccine capable of stopping person-to-person transmission of polio.
Francis was the chairman of the School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology from 1941 to 1969. His research focussed on the study of the causes of infectious disease, especially pneumonia, influenza and polio.
The school continues its tradition of vaccine research today in the area of influenza. Maassab, who received his doctorate in public health from the U-M School of Public Health in 1955 and who, like Salk, worked with Francis on developing an influenza vaccine, has developed a nasal spray influenza vaccine using a live attenuated (weakened) virus. The vaccine, which will be marketed by Aviron under the name FluMist, is in the final stages of FDA approval. It is expected to be available in 2000 or 2001.
Web: http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/

one from the U.S. Postal ServicePostal ServiceSchool of Public HealthDepartment of Epidemiologyhttp://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/