Saturday, April 29, 2000
City street honors Sabin
Name salutes tie to man, vaccine that shaped world
By Tim Bonfield
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Heloise Sabin (foreground) with daughter Amy Horn, granddaughter Katie Horn and grandson Matt Horn.
(Ernest Coleman photos)
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With the dedication Friday of Albert Sabin Way, medical and political leaders recognized Cincinnati's proud connection to one of the greatest medical achievements of the 20th century — the near-total elimination of polio.
The event was part of a 40th anniversary celebration of the oral polio vaccine developed by Dr. Albert Sabin at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and at Children's Hospital Medical Center.
“The work that Dr. Sabin did left an indelible mark on Children's Hospital Medical Center as a demonstration of the extraordinary impact of research. We selfishly use the example he set to inspire the next generation of researchers,” said James Anderson, president and chief executive of Children's Hospital Medical Center.
Cincinnati has struggled recently to find a way to honor the memory of Dr. Sabin, who died in 1993. Rebuilding Fort Washington Way eliminated a park in his honor and city leaders decided to sell naming rights as part of plans to expand the Cincinnati convention center that bears his name.
Now Dr. Sabin's name adorns the street connecting Children's Hospital and the College of Medicine, an education center under construction at Children's Hospital and the lobby of UC's new Vontz Center for Molecular Research.
Polio victim Sheila Stuckey greets Mrs. Sabin.
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Polio just the start
Watching from a scooter, her legs paralyzed years before Dr. Sabin's vaccine conquered polio, Sheila Stuckey said she was glad few will ever face an iron lung machine or a lifetime in leg braces.
“This was a wonderful ceremony. He deserves every recognition he gets,” Miss Stuckey said.
A group of vaccine experts who gathered in Cincinnati on Friday looked ahead at what other diseases might be conquered someday.
The experts' message was mixed.
Thanks to a worldwide campaign, polio appears within a few years of elimination. Vaccines under development for colon cancer, rotavirus (a leading cause of diarrhea, which can be dangerous in infants) and other illnesses show promise.
Dr. Sabin gives his vaccine to an area girl in this 1960s-era photo. Children who never tasted a Sabin Sunday sugar cube can learn about the disease from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. today at the Cincinnati Museum Center.
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Children still dying
But a vaccine for AIDS appears at least a decade away. Efforts to promote newer vaccines — including vaccinated foods — face rising political resistance.
Meanwhile, an estimated 3 million children in developing countries were killed in 1998 by diseases from which Americans have taken immunity for granted for years, such as measles, tetanus and whooping cough.
• Polio: In 1988, the World Health Organization reported 35,251 new polio infections in 125 countries. By 1999, the figure had dwindled to 6,897 cases in 30 countries.
The end of polio was hoped for by 2000. It might still occur by 2005, said Dr. Harry Hull, senior adviser for the World Health Organization's polio eradication project.
What people don't realize is how huge an effort it takes, he said. In Afghanistan, men strap boxes of chilled vaccine to donkeys to haul them to remote mountain villages. In Cambodia, volunteers went boat-to-boat to find families living on the waters of the Mekong delta.
Cancer vaccine on way
• Cancer: In years to come, vaccines may be expanded to diseases many people never expected, like cancer.
This summer, large clinical trials are expected to begin for vaccines designed to help make a person's immune system fight colon cancer and melanoma (a deadly form of skin cancer), said Dr. Kenneth Foon, director of the Barrett Cancer Center and one of the principal investigators in the new studies.
For years, cancer cells have tricked human immune systems into treating them as normal parts of the body. Now, Dr. Foon and others are testing vaccines based on the mirror image of antigens found on cancer cells as a way of tricking the body into fighting cancer.
• Vaccine foods: The “Holy Grail” of vaccine research is to develop plants that can prevent disease simply by eating them, said Dr. Samuel Katz, a vaccine expert with Duke University.
Human testing has recently begun using a strain of potatoes that can prevent E. coli infections. Others are working on a line of medicinal bananas, Dr. Katz said.
But such approaches face growing fears of vaccine side effects, which have already prompted 11 states to consider lifting mandatory immunization rules.
“We have to be more aggressive and articulate about the value of immunization,” Dr. Katz said.
• Rotavirus: In 1998, the FDA approved the first rotavirus vaccine, but it was pulled off the market last year after about 100 children developed intestinal blockages. Now, a more effective vaccine, developed at Children's Hospital, has begun human testing, said Dr. David Bernstein, chief of Cincinnati's Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Center.
Worldwide, rotavirus kills 800,000 to 1 million children a year, although deaths are rare in America, Dr. Bernstein said.
• AIDS: Since 1995, a cocktail of anti-viral drugs has cut annual AIDS deaths in America in half.
But those treatments haven't been available for people in sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 20 million people have been infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
“Unfortunately, developing a vaccine is the one area where we've had the least success,” said Dr. Judith Feinberg, an AIDS expert with the UC College of Medicine.
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