Vaccination campaigns against poliomyelitis in Spain in 1963

Abstract

Two anti-poliomyelitic vaccination campaigns coexisted in 1963: the Salk vaccine used by the Compulsory Health Insurance and the pilot experience with the oral Sabin vaccine promoted by the Health General Office. This simultaneity of campaigns was due to the interest that both bodies had to control the Preventive Medicine in Spain. The Compulsory Sickness Insurance used the antipolio vaccine to promote itself socially in a time when the Basic Law on Social Security was being developed. Under these circumstances, the Health General Office allegedly brought forward its vaccine campaign by using a test of an innovative oral trivalent vaccine in the province of León, something which was hidden to the public. The Health General Office’s claim of competence in prevention and the need of a massive response to a voluntary vaccine led to a singular advertising campaign with old messages in innovative means of communication.