Albert Sabin and the Coalition to Eliminate Polio from the Americas

Abstract

Albert B. Sabin, MD, developer of the oral polio vaccine, was also a major proponent of its use in annual vaccination campaigns aimed at the elimination of polio. Sabin argued that administering his vaccine simultaneously to every child in a country would break polio's chains of transmission. Although he was already promoting mass vaccination by the 1960s, Sabin's efforts expanded considerably when he became an adviser to groups fighting polio in the Americas in the 1980s. Sabin's experiences provide a window into both the formation of the coalition that eliminated poliomyelitis from the Western Hemisphere and what can happen when biomedical researchers become public health policy advisers. Although the polio elimination coalition succeeded in part because member groups often accommodated each other's priorities, Sabin was often limited by his indifference to the interests of those he was advising and to the shortcomings of his vaccine.

Albert Sabin vaccinates a child with the polio vaccine. Sabin was directly involved with many of the campaigns to distribute the oral polio vaccine. Source. World Health Organization.

Rotary volunteers carry an ice chest containing vaccines. Rotary International has had an important role both in mobilizing popular and political support for polio immunization and in assisting with the logistics behind immunization campaigns. These workers are helping to operate the cold chain that keeps temperature-sensitive vaccines viable. Rotary made crucial contributions to the elimination of the disease from the Western Hemisphere, and it remains a central participant in the global coalition to eradicate polio. Source. World Health Organization.

Guerillas in El Salvador vaccinate a child against polio and 5 other diseases during a 3-day ceasefire in 1985. Some 20 000 vaccinators, including rebels, volunteers, and health professionals, gave vaccines to 250 000 children during the Days of Tranquility. Source. Pan American Health Organization

Luis Fermin Tenorio, a Peruvian boy who in 1991 developed the last known case of poliomyelitis in the Western Hemisphere during the campaign to eliminate polio. In 2000, a vaccine-derived paralytic poliovirus outbreak on Hispaniola temporarily reignited the indigenous transmission of paralytic polio in the Americas. Source. World Health Organization.