Vaccine diplomacy during the Cold War (ii), heads or tails. Tails: Antonina Shubladze and the Soviet vaccine against acute encephalomyelitis and multiple sclerosis

M. Marco Igual
Neurosciences and History 2024;12(2):77-93

Type of article: ORIGINAL

AUTHOR

M. Marco Igual
Neurólogo. Hospital Universitario Parc Taulí, Sabadell, Spain.

ABSTRACT

The most remarkable results of the collaboration in the field of medicine between the Soviet Union and Western countries during the Cold War were the oral poliomyelitis vaccine and the near-complete eradication of the disease worldwide, which are addressed in a first article. The counterpoint of the so-called vaccine diplomacy was the controversy that arose in the 1950s around the Soviet vaccine against acute encephalomyelitis and multiple sclerosis, developed on the initiative of Antonina Shubladze after the discovery of a virus associated with those diseases, belonging to the family Rhabdoviridae. The vaccine was used for several decades in the Soviet Union and occasionally in other countries. This article analyses its development and the reactions it caused in the Western world, especially in the United States through Albert Sabin. It is interesting to study the story of this treatment for multiple sclerosis, at a time when the current means for diagnosis and treatment of the disease were not available, as well as to analyse the strong discordance between data from its study in the USSR and in the West.

KEYWORDS

Vaccine against acute encephalomyelitis and multiple sclerosis, rabies virus, Antonina Shubladze, Albert Sabin, Cold War, Soviet Union, Western countries

Neurosciences and History 2024;12(2): 77-93