Jonas Salk's 100th birthday: Google Doodle thanks scientist for polio vaccine

With a new doodle, Google on Tuesday celebrated American scientist Jonas Salk’s 100th birthday. Stalk is the man who gave the world the gift of the polio vaccine on 12 April 1955. He was hailed all over the world as the “miracle worker.” The average number of polio cases in the US was more than 45,000, in the two years before his vaccine was made widely available. The number had dropped to 910 by 1962, reports The Independent. [caption id=“attachment_1776011” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Screen grab from Google Doodle.[/caption] The American physician, virologist, and immunologist was born in New York City on 28 October, 1914. In the Doodle, Dr Jonas Salk is seen standing on a street with children playing around him. Two kids hold up a placard saying, “Thank you Dr Salk”. According to The Independent report, Salk graduated from New York University School of Medicine in 1939 with his M.D. degree. He then applied his talents to the field of research, becoming a fellow at the University of Michigan where he worked to develop a flu vaccine at the request of the US Army.

Salk started his research on developing a polio vaccine in 1947 and the 1949 discovery that there were three distinct types of polio viruses gave his research a new direction. The vaccine developed by Jonas Salk was determined safe for general use in 1955.

Dr Salk’s work led to the eradication of the dreaded polio in the United States and also from most parts of the world. Jonas Salk died of heart failure on 23 June, 1995, in La Jolla, California, at the age of 80.