Role of my cooperation with Soviet scientists in the elimination of polio: possible lessons for relations between the U.S.A. and the USSR.

Abstract

The purpose of this communication is threefold: (1) to bring into perspective the important role ofmy cooperation with Soviet scientists in the development of the oral poliovirus vaccine used for more than 25 years for the elimination of paralytic poliomyelitis; (2) to describe the obstacles to worldwide eradication of the disease; and (3) to describe a hope I have derived from this experience that cooperative endeavors between the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union against the larger common enemy of poverty in more than half the world's population may become a means of breaking the dangerous impasse ofjustifiable, mutual distrust that causes the U.S.A. and the USSR to continue preparing for a barbaric war against each other, a war that neither nation wants and the whole world dreads, a war that cannot be won but can lead to the greatest tragedy ever inflicted on the human species. Some people think that poliomyelitis, the crippling disease that has been part of the human heritage since earliest evolutionary times, has already been conquered, that is, eliminated, brought under control, or even eradicated. This conception is partly true and partly false. It is true for about 2,000 million of the world's population living in temperateclimate countries where it is reasonably estimated that during the past 20 years the oral polio vaccine has prevented about 5 million cases ofpersistent paralysis and perhaps 500,000 deaths [I]. But it is not true for most tropical and subtropical, economically undeveloped countries inhabited by about 3,000 million people, where much polio has undoubtedly been This paper is a slightly modified version of the Twenty-third Cosmos Award Lecture presented April 15, 1986, at the Cosmos Club, Washington, D.C. ?Fogarty International Center for Advanced Studies in the Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.