Isabel Morgan, scientist who did research against polio, protagonist of a new video in the series "Women in science".

Since June 21, 2002, Europe has been celebrating that it is free of polio. The Science Museum of the University of Navarra joins this day with a video highlighting the scientific work of Isabel Morgan, a woman who fought to eradicate this disease.

Poliomyelitis is an infectious disease that has affected millions of people for centuries - especially children under the age of five - and whose vaccination did not arrive until the 1960s. The disease is caused by a virus that invades the nervous system and can have critical health consequences, such as paralysis of the respiratory muscles, which can lead to death. In the fight against polio, it is worth mentioning the name of a leading scientist, unknown to the general public: Isabel Morgan.

Isabel Morgan (1911-1996) graduated from Stanford University and received her PhD in Bacteriology in Pennsylvania. In 1944 she formed a research group with David Bodian and Howard Howe -students at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore- and together they made important findings in the study of the disease: they discovered that the main route of infection is the digestive tract; that there are three different types of the virus; and that during infection there is a viraemia phase (presence of the virus in the blood).  

One of Morgan's great contributions was the development of an experimental prototype vaccine with poliovirus -killed viruses inactivated with formaldehyde-, which he successfully applied in chimpanzees. These studies were the first experimental evidence of a vaccine against poliomyelitis and served as the basis years later for the development of the first vaccine.

Isabel Morgan is a woman who contributed to the eradication of polio. This scientist abandoned her research to devote herself fully to her own family. In the small town of Warm Spring, in the state of Georgia (USA), there is a monument with the sculpted busts of the fifteen heroes who participated in the fight against polio. Among them, the only woman, Isabel Morgan.

Poliomyelitis, a disease that affected millions of people worldwide

Polio was one of the most widespread diseases in the 20th century, until the emergence of AIDS. In the mid-1950s there were major polio epidemics throughout the world. In Spain, more than 20,000 people were affected by this disease.

Polio vaccines were developed between 1955 and 1962. The first contribution was developed by Jonas Salk who used killed viruses - a contribution initiated by Isabel Morgan - and the second came from the scientist Albert Sabin, using live attenuated viruses. Mass immunization campaigns promoted by the World Health Organization, combining both vaccines, have made polio the second human infectious disease to be eradicated from the planet, after smallpox.

The "Women in Science" video project is part of the Science Museum's STEM strategy to make the teaching of subjects related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics more attractive, especially among girls and young women. It also has the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) / Ministry of Science and Innovation.