The Socialist World in Global Polio Eradication

Abstract

While global polio eradication is most often associated with “philanthrocapitalism”, the program has its roots in the Cold War East. This paper shifts the beginnings of polio eradication by three decades and argues that the vaccine developed in the nexus of liberal internationalism and socialist international networks. The result of a collaboration between Albert Sabin, Soviet and Eastern European virologists and public health officials, the live polio vaccine used today in polio eradication programs began its global journey in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Cuba. The paperarticle argues that socialist ideas and practices of health provided fertile ground for a disease elimination program that rested on a combination of primary health structures and top-down initiatives. Taking the case of the Sabin vaccine, it considers the role of political systems in disease eradication.