Viewing page 1 of 4

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Transcription: [00:00:32]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"} This is for "Adventures in Science" to be broadcast on Saturday, January 12th from Washington. Watson Davis speaking.

[00:00:39]
[[Pause]]

[00:00:44]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"} Our Adventures in Science guests today transcribed are Dr. Hart E. Van Riper who's Medical Director of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, and Dr. Jonas E. Salk of the University of Pittsburgh; he's head of the Department of Bacteriolgy and he also uh, runs the virus research laboratory there, supported by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. We're here in ah the midst of the March of Dimes Dr. Van Riper uh a great work to make it possible to discover the cause and the prevention of Polio. Now, I'd like to know Dr. Van Riper, how close are we to a cure for infantile paralysis?

[00:01:31]
{SPEAKER name="Hart E. Van Riper"} I'm glad you asked that question, Mr. Davis, and I can answer that by hedging and saying, I think, perhaps, we're much closer to a prevention than we are a cure.

[00:01:40]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"} Well, I think, Dr. Van Riper, we're probably a lot more interested in preventing Polio than we are in curing it, uh, in the long run that is. Let's talk about how can you prevent it then?

[00:01:51]
{SPEAKER name="Hart E. Van Riper"} Well, I think that in this day of modern medicine when we're talking more about preventive medicine than curative medicine, we're all looking for prevention of disease in man, whether it be an infectious thing or degenerative disease or what not, and honestly we know today that Polio, like other infectious diseases, may be controlled eventually by a vaccine. Now that's a long step forward in the last ah, oh say 10 or 15 years, and since this is the 15th March of Dimes, we measure progress in years.

[00:02:28]
{SPEAKER name="Watson Davis"} Well, Dr. Salk, uh, Dr. Van Riper, we're going to hear from Dr. Salk in a few minutes. Uh, what about uh progress toward a vaccine; there've been vaccines in the past, haven't there, that been tried?

[00:02:42]
{SPEAKER name="Hart E. Van Riper"} Yes, but, ah, Dr. Salk's going to tell us in a little while, ah, before, you see, we didn't know how many viruses were capable of causing Poliomyelitis in a human being, ah, and recent studies have indicated there there are at least 3 types or strains of virus which can cause a disease in which in fact accounts for the fact that there have been reported cases, second attacks in the same individual.
[00:03:08]