Wednesday Ceremony Unveils Postage Stamp Honoring Polio Vaccine Developer Albert Sabin

Albert Sabin, MD, whose oral, live-virus polio vaccine has saved thousands, if not millions, of children worldwide from the crippling disease, is to be honored with a new, 87-cent U.S. postage stamp.

A ceremony to commemorate nationwide release of the stamp will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 8, at the Vontz Center for Molecular Studies, Eden Avenue and Martin Luther King Drive, on the University of Cincinnati (UC) Academic Health Center campus.

Dr. Sabin, who died in 1993, was on the faculty of UC College of Medicine and the staff of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Research Foundation (CHRF) when he developed the attenuated live-virus polio vaccine in the 1950s. After being adopted widely around the world, the vaccine became available for use in the United States in 1963. 

Acting Cincinnati postmaster Chu Falling Star and U.S. Postal Service marketing manager Joy Upton will present three framed, enlarged images of the new stamp to:

• Heloisa Sabin, Dr. Sabin’s 87-year-old widow
• Jane Henney, MD, senior vice president and provost of the UC Academic Health Center, and
• James Anderson, president and CEO of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC).

David Stern, MD, dean of UC College of Medicine, will introduce an eight-minute videotape, from 1979, in which Dr. Sabin talks about his life and work.

David Bernstein, MD, a UC professor and director of pediatric infectious diseases at Cincinnati Children’s, will explain how Dr. Sabin’s scientific legacy continues to further development of new vaccines against infectious diseases.

UC’s image of the new stamp will be displayed beside the permanent Sabin exhibit in the Vontz Center atrium. Following the ceremony, in the center’s Rieveschl Auditorium, attendees will be invited to visit the exhibit.

Parking will be available at the Kingsgate Conference Center, on Goodman Drive next to the Vontz Center.