The Virus and the Vaccine
Subtitle: The True Story of a Cancer-Causing Monkey Virus, Contaminated Polio Vaccine, and the Millions of Americans Exposed
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: April 29, 2004
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 400
ISBN-13: 9780312278724
Subjects: Diseases - General; Public Health; United States - 20th Century; Medical / Public Health; History - U.S.; Contamination; History; Poliomyelitis vaccine; Popular works; SV40 (Virus); History: American
First sentence: IT WAS ALREADY getting warm as dawn broke along the coast of Maine on the morning of August 11, 1921.
Description: Jonas Salk's polio vaccine has taken on an almost legendary quality as a medical miracle, for it largely eradicated one of the most feared diseases of the 20th century. But the story of the vaccine has a dark side, one that has never been fully told before ... Between 1954 and 1963, close to 98 million Americans received polio vaccinations contaminated with a carcinogenic monkey virus, now known as SV40. A concerted government effort downplayed the incident, and it was generally accepted that although oncogenic to laboratory animals, SV40 was harmless to humans. But now SV40 in showing up in human cancers, and prominent researchers are demanding a serious public health response to this forgotten polio vaccine contaminant. A gripping medical detective story, The Virus and the Vaccine raises major questions about vaccine policy.