Article ID: CBB001420184

Between East and West: Polio Vaccination across the Iron Curtain in Cold War Hungary (2014)

unapi

In 1950s Hungary, with an economy and infrastructure still devastated from World War II and facing further hardships, thousands of children became permanently disabled and many died in the severe polio epidemic that shook the globe. The relatively new communist regime invested significantly in solving the public health crisis, initially importing a vaccine from the West and later turning to the East for a new solution. Through the history of polio vaccination in Hungary, this article shows how Cold War politics shaped vaccine evaluation and implementation in the 1950s. On the one hand, the threat of polio created a safe place for hitherto unprecedented, open cooperation among governments and scientific communities on the two sides of the Iron Curtain. On the other hand, Cold War rhetoric influenced scientific evaluation of vaccines, choices of disease prevention, and ultimately the eradication of polio.

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Reviewed By

Review Liza Piper (2019) Review of "Between East and West: Polio Vaccination across the Iron Curtain in Cold War Hungary". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 860-861). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001420184/

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Authors & Contributors
Wooten, Heather Green
Trecker, Max
Hinz-Wessels, Annette
Urbansky, Sören
Wilson, Daniel J.
Willrich, Michael
Concepts
Vaccines; vaccination
Disease and diseases
Poliomyelitis
Medicine
Public health
Medicine and government
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, late
21st century
20th century, early
19th century
Places
United States
China
Texas (U.S.)
India
Velha Goa (India)
Bangladesh
Institutions
World Health Organization (WHO)
European Association against Poliomyelitis
National Cancer Institute (U.S.)
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