You will wonder, quite rightly, what the hell those three things have to do with each other. Well, according to Rafael Nájera, responsible for the first pilot mass vaccination campaign against polio, promoter and first director of the Carlos III Health Institute, a lot.
And little joke with this first national pilot vaccination campaign because, with it, a new stage also begins in Spain in the fight against infectious diseases, thus starting the true control of biological products. Serious studies then begin on tests of identity, potency, “in vitro” attenuation, etc. and allow the creation in Spain of the National Center for Virology and Health Ecology, pfirst research institute for viral diseases, where studies on respiratory and exanthematic viruses were also carried out and which would lead to the implementation of the corresponding vaccines. And of course, the concept of total coverage is also introduced through vaccination schedules that have allowed the control of numerous infectious diseases.
But how did it all start?
Poliomyelitis, or polio as it was known, was a scary disease. For the deaths caused and also for the consequences of the disease on those who survived. The period from 1958 to 1963 was especially virulent: around 2,000 cases and 200 deaths per year (on average, there were much tougher years than these figures).
During the previous years, there was already an international debate about the vaccines to use to stop the disease: the inactivated Salk vaccine, chosen by countries such as the USA, Canada or the United Kingdom, or the attenuated Sabin vaccine, available in Europe since 1960 but which had its greatest glory in the countries of the Soviet orbit.
This debate also took place in Spain, although in the case of our country ideological issues that had little to do with each other were mixed. On the one hand, since 1957 there has been the Salk vaccine, whose implementation was merely testimonial due to the lack of impetus from the authorities and the excessive price (200 pesetas) of the doses, but which had the support of the Compulsory Health Insurance (Ministry of Labor, led by the Falangist wing of the Regime) and Juan Bosch Marín, representative of the most conservative structure of the Franco regime.
On the other hand, we find the work of a group of researchers from the National School of Health, headed by Florencio Pérez Gallardo, who opted for the Sabin oral vaccine, according to the results of their epidemiological study; supported, in turn, by the Ministry of the Interior and the military-Catholic wing of the Regime.
In the end, and as happens in many other areas, polio vaccination became a battlefield where what was really at stake was control of health policy. Of course, at least the battle took place in a surprisingly academic setting: between February and April and in different settings such as the Royal National Academy of Medicine, the Madrid Pediatric Society or the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) they organized until ten conferences to analyze pros and cons of each vaccine.
Finally, on April 18, 1963, the debates ended and they opted for the Sabin vaccine, without ruling out the Salk vaccine. In any case, the General Directorate of Health is organizing a pilot oral vaccination campaign that starts on May 14 in León and Lugo and is a complete success that, without hesitation, is transferred to the then Secretary General of Health, José Manuel Romay Beccaría , which sees in the possibility of carrying out a universal campaign the opportunity to show the country’s health modernization, a decisive fact for the Minister of the Interior to announce the First National Campaign against Polio on November 14.
And this is where what gives the title to this article comes in: why did the Ministry of the Interior decide to take the step of starting a massive vaccination campaign and do it with great fanfare?
Well, because in 1963 many things were happening: strikes and massive repression of trade unionists, what was known by the Regime as the Munich Collusion, the first broad meeting of anti-fascist forces, and the execution of Julián Grimau. All of this was generating a broad international response that did not view favorably the brutal repression of the Franco regime.
A success in public health that would show them to the world as a modern country concerned about its population was just what they needed. At least, that’s what Rafael Nájera himself says in an interesting talk that you can find in the Albacete Hospital media library.
Well, I will go back briefly to tell you what the pilot campaign that was developed in León and Lugo was like because it is also of interest.
Put yourself in a situation and think about those territories in 1963. If today there are still places that are difficult to reach due to the lack of decent connections, then get an idea…
They toured the provinces of Lugo and León with a Coca-Cola refrigerator in which they carried the “communist” vaccines (yes, that’s how they were known then!), having in many cases to do without the car and set out on a mule or on foot to be able to travel. reach all the centers where there were boys and girls from 3 months to 7 years old. They reached places that would seem incredible: they point out the region of La Cabrera or Las Médulas and how they found there that the deaths were “testimonial”, that is, that they were recorded when the thaw allowed them to approach the closest towns with Civil Registry. Of course, it was quite a feat that allowed us to go from more than 2,000 cases annually in 1960 to 62 cases in 1965 in Spain.
Rafael Nájera, responsible for vaccinating the first girl, was also responsible for signing, within the framework of the World Health Organization, the elimination of poliomyelitis in Europe.
Unfortunately, after the initial interest passed, support waned and what could have been completed in a few years was unjustifiably delayed: polio was not officially eradicated from our country until 1988. Of course, the learnings remained and served in the future to guarantee public health and prevention programs, without which the situation in Spain would have been much worse.
2024-03-30 23:02:27
#Polio #vaccination #Spain #Munich #conspiracy #execution #Julián #Grimau
