In early 70’s Professor Albert Sabin, a prominent American physician and scientist who first isolated poliovirus, and made first oral polio vaccine, came to Iran for a couple of days. He visited Tehran University Medical School and major research institutions in Tehran, gave a lecture to medical faculty and students, and answered their questions.
The next two days he flew to Isfahan and Shiraz, and repeated the same program. On his return to Tehran before he left, some students asked him about the purpose of his trip. He said he is in his Eighties, and any day he may die. Some commercial companies wanted to buy his vaccine formula, and were willing to pay him a lot of money. but, he did not want to sell his formula.
He was traveling to several countries across the globe, to speak with their scientists and visit their facilities, to choose a few country that have potential for making his vaccine properly. Then he would give the right of making his vaccine to them to make the vaccine for use in their own country, as well as neibouring countries free. His goal was to help control and eliminate poliomyelitis from the globe, like smallpox. Then he left Iran to go to Japan.
A couple of months later, we found out that he has chosen Razi Institute in Iran, as one of the centers to make his polio vaccine. Dr. H. Mirshamsi, the great Iranian scientist and Director of Razi, with his group of scientists, made oral polio vaccine in about a year, which helped bring polio in Iran under control. Dr. Sabin died on March 3, 1993 in Washington.
