Major Advances

The March of Dimes funds biomedical research in order to fulfill its mission to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, prematurity, and other fatal or disabling conditions. Thousands of children are alive today, and millions more are leading healthier lives because of advances in treatment and prevention made possible by March of Dimes-funded research involving animals. Here are some examples:

Epidemic Polio
Development of the first safe and effective vaccine for polio. The Salk vaccine, licensed in 1955, reduced the number of people affected each year in the United States by epidemics of that paralyzing disease from about 58,000 at its peak down to 1,000 by 1962. The March of Dimes also supported development of the oral (Sabin) polio vaccine, licensed in 1962. Thanks to these two vaccines, polio was eradicated from the Western Hemisphere and by 2005, it is expected to be eradicated in the rest of the world.

Heart Defects
Development of drug therapy to close patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), an abnormally persisting detour in newborn heart-lung circulation that previously could be closed only by surgery. March of Dimes-funded researchers also developed drug treatment to maintain PDA in newborns with certain other complex heart defects in which survival depends on the detour remaining open until surgical repairs can be made.

Fetal Surgery
Development of new surgical techniques to save babies still in the womb from certain life-threatening birth defects, such as diaphragmatic hernia, and to improve the outcome for unborn babies with spina bifida (a spinal cord malformation).

Newborn Jaundice
Development of a new drug called tin-porphyrin to prevent or treat newborn jaundice, which is a common disorder in newborns and which can cause permanent brain damage in severe cases.

Surfactant Therapy
Support for development of this treatment that is credited with saving tens of thousands of lives. Premature babies whose immature lungs do not produce enough surfactant can now be treated with natural or synthetic surfactant.

AIDS Transmission
Funding a study of whether the drug AZT (zidovudine) could prevent transmission of the virus that causes AIDS from mothers to babies. Based on the success of this and other studies, AZT has become a standard treatment for pregnant HIV-positive women.

Nitric Oxide
Support for study of the regulation of blood flow in the lungs, which helped to establish the safety and effectiveness of nitric oxide treatment for critically ill premature babies with dangerously high blood pressure in their lungs – a disorder called persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN). PPHN can cause death or brain damage in babies. Nitric oxide therapy is considered an important advance over the previous treatment for PPHN, which was highly invasive and risky.