The Poliomyelitis virus has been one of the most infectious and deadly disease in the history of humanity before the vaccine was discovered around the 1950s. In reality the polio virus comprises of many other viruses that have a long term effect on the body of a human being. Because the real components had not been discovered by the early researchers when making the vaccine, their early efforts to deal with polio virus faced some serious obstacles.
During the 19th century the polio disease was said to be caused by the poor hygienic conditions of water and food stuffs. The young children who are mostly affected by the disease used to survive after birth for the sometime because of the immunity that they could develop during breastfeeding. Soon after weaning the immunity levels for the polio disease could start declining and it is during this period of time that the disease could start having serious effects on the children.
The polio vaccine induces the body to generate antibodies that will make inactive and kill the dangerous virus from being transmitted from one person to another. The first polio vaccine was developed from the spinal cords of the monkeys that did not work out well because of the allergy that it caused to the people who were used to test its effectiveness. The successive history of the polio vaccine can be traced to the 1952 when most of the industrialized countries began to experience a decline in the level of infections of polio virus.
This was facilitated by the numerous laboratory researches that had been carried out on the polio virus that lead to the discovery of the three components that make up the polio virus like PV1, PV2 and PV3. The components were then successfully dealt with by using different types of immunizations which killed the cells that caused the polio virus. The discovery of the polio vaccine has been a great success story to the modern society in dealing with the most infectious diseases that have caused a threat to the growth and development of human beings.
Currently few cases are reported in few parts of Africa and Asia continents which show a great improvement in the war against polio virus. This research paper will focus on the two scientists that have influenced the advances in the development of the polio vaccine, the other modern researches on the issues of infectious diseases like polio and the importance of the vaccine to the modern society.