Drop Of Life - Albert Sabin

“A scientist who is also a human being cannot rest while knowledge which might be used to reduce suffering rests on the shelf.”- Albert B Sabin

Albert B. Sabin was born in Bialystok, Poland, which at the time was part of Imperial Russia. His family immigrated to the United States in 1921 to avoid Nazi persecution and settled in Paterson, New Jersey. He originally intended to study dentistry as his uncle had promised to pay for his tuition. However, he developed an interest in research and decided to shift gears and study viruses at university. At the time a polio epidemic had broken out in New Jersey which piqued his interest.

Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a disabling and life-threatening disease caused by the poliovirus. The virus spreads from person to person and can infect a person’s spinal cord, causing paralysis. This disease usually affects children below the age of two. While studying the virus, Sabin discovered that the virus was spread in 2 ways- through the respiratory tract (droplets released while coughing or sneezing) and through the intestines (fecal matter). This discovery was essential in guiding Sabin’s research for developing a vaccine.

By the time Sabin developed his oral polio vaccine (OPV) another inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) was commercially available in the market. A company called Cutter produced these IPVs. Unfortunately, 2 of the batches produced contained active polio virus which infected over 100 people and caused 10 deaths. Following this horrific incident, the United States government was skeptical about allowing field testing for Sabin’s OPV. Sabin tested his vaccine on 10,000 monkeys, 160 chimpanzees, and even himself and his two daughters before receiving approval to test the vaccine in the Soviet Union. The vaccine provided very good results in field testing and was passed to be produced and administered to children. Later, the United States also approved this vaccine.

The OPV was preferred over the IPV as it was easier to produce, targeted the disease systemically, cheaper, and hassle-free to administer. In fact, the OPV was administered with a lump of sugar. Surprisingly a famous song by Herman Brothers even advocated the vaccine in the line- “Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in a most delightful way.”

Sabin was asked repeatedly to patent his vaccine but he refused to do so as he wished to help children around the world. He called it his “gift to the children”. In 1970, he received the National Medal of Science “for numerous fundamental contributions to the understanding of viruses and viral diseases, culminating in the development of the vaccine which has eliminated poliomyelitis as a major threat to human health.”

Albert Sabin died at 86 in the hospital of Georgetown University in Washington on March 3, 1993.

Bibliography

CDC. “What Is Polio? .” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, 11 Aug. 2022, www.cdc.gov/polio/what-is-polio/index.htm. Accessed 3 July 2023.

National Science Foundation. “The National Medal of Science 50th Anniversary | National Science Foundation.” Www.nsf.gov, www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/medalofscience50/sabin.jsp. Accessed 3 July 2023.

Orsini, Davide, and Mariano Martini. “Albert Bruce Sabin: The Man Who Made the Oral Polio Vaccine.” Emerging Infectious Diseases, vol. 28, no. 3, Mar. 2022, https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2803.204699.

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