Black Woman’s Cells Developed Polio Vaccine

Henrietta Lacks Contribution to Science History                                     

I wanted to write about huge accomplishments by Afro-Americans, for Black History month that are little known.  Maybe others have heard of this woman’s contribution to medical science, but I had not and I find the story amazing and remarkable.

Henrietta  Lacks contributed, in a chain of events that would forever change medical history, a preventative cure for an ominous debilitating disease known as polio, which would cure millions all without her knowledge.

10,000 people marched down the streets of New York in an effort to bring forth a cure for polio, a couple of days later on February 1, 1951 Henrietta Lacks sought out medical attention for a vaginal discharge at John Hopkins Hospital.  Unfortunately, the diagnosis was not good she had cervical cancer.  After months of treatment Ms. Lacks passed away on October 4, 1951. 

Henrietta Lacks Legacy

During her extended stay at the hospital, unbeknownst to Ms. Lacks, a tobacco farmer, from Halifax County Virginia, cells were removed from her body before her death, without her knowledge or consent.  The cells were removed in a routine biopsy, while studying the cells scientist noticed that the Lacks cells did something they had never seen before, they stayed alive and grew outside the patients body!

HeLa was the name given the cells using the first two letters of Henrietta’s first name and the first two letters of her last name.   Three years after her demise the HeLa cells were used by Jonas Salk to develop the vaccine for polio.  The news about these amazing cells spread in the scientific world like wild fire, and soon the demand grew so much that the cells were put into mass production.

Henrietta’s cells have traveled all over the world and back even into outer space.  Her cells were placed on an unmanned satellite to test whether human tissues could survive zero gravity.  Essentially, Ms. Lacks was the first woman and Afro-American in space. 

Decades have passed and the HeLa cells are still alive and still being used in research.   They’ve assisted in research for cancer, AIDS, gene mapping, and the effects of radiation and toxic substances on humans.  Chemist have also used the cells to test human sensitivity to tape, cosmetics, glue and other commercial products.

Finally Recognition

• 1996 Moorhouse College, in Atlanta, Georgia recognized the Lacks family, of one husband and four children, for Ms. Lacks continuing contribution to science.
• 1997 a documentary aired spotlighting Lacks contribution to science entitle “Modern Times; The Way of all Flesh”, and won the Best Science and Nature Documentary at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1998.
• Numerous articles in newspapers, magazines and scientific journals have be written and published regarding the discovery, since the 1950’s. 
• The Smithsonian Institute honored the surviving Lacks family.
• 2001 a press release from the National Foundation for Cancer Research honored Henrietta Lacks; “the late Henrietta Lacks for the contributions made to cancer research and modern medicine”.  The date was September 14, 2001 (changed due to the horrific events of 9/11).

Henrietta Lacks, died at age 31, decendant of slaves that worked the tobacco fields of Virginia.  Daughter of a railroad brakeman and one of ten children.  Who would have guessed she would hold the key to life giving cells, that continue to grow outside the human body, even to this day?

Despite the inconsideration and lack of patient doctor confidentiality in removing the cells, who would of thought that the 31 year old black woman would hold the key to prevent the spread of polio?

The tobacco farming black, sister, wife and mother, in death save the lives and limbs of so many people for over a half a century.  My personal thanks to Mrs. Henrietta Lacks and her family for her distinguished contribution to mankind.