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Some things I agree with
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Monday, July 17 The Man Who Saved Your Life  Many people will fail to recognise this man's name: Maurice R. Hilleman. However, he was the man who developed vaccines that have subsequently saved (literally) tens of millions of people since their creation. His work on influenza has also hugely benefited development of a vaccine in advance of an H5N1 pandemic (the so-called 'Avian Bird Flu' strain), as he was (and still is) the only person to have ever developed a vaccine against a strain of flu in advance of the actual pandemic occurring. Not only did he invent a vaccine for the Mumps virus (and later, the combined Measles-Mumps Rubella, or MMR, vaccine which is still commonplace today), he was a pioneer in developing vaccines for a cornucopia of other infectious diseases. Aside from the suite of MMR vaccines (and the combined MMR jab), the list of his achievements includes vaccines for chickenpox, Hepatitis B, flu and bacterial Menengitis. From the New Jersey Association for Biomedical Research article on Hilleman, By 1967, Hilleman had turned his daughter's virus, dubbed the Jeryl Lynn strain of mumps, into the world's first live vaccine against mumps. Soon, mumps became a disease of the past in the United States. The names Jenner, Pasteur, Salk and Sabin are likely to register with people. Not Hilleman. Even though he is the godfather of the modern vaccine era. Even though he has, in a career that has spanned six decades, developed nearly three dozen vaccines - more than any other scientist. Hilleman died recently (April 2005), and his death went somewhat unnoticed considering his stature and importance to the medical world - and the world in general. We would be plagued by countless now-preventable diseases and infections had he not trailblazed. He even began to develop a cure for HIV/AIDS in the 70s, before the epidemic reached mass proportions - and unfortunately, his pioneering method of using infected human blood samples to create an antiviral agent was frowned upon by many other scientists, even though it was easily the most effective and expedient method for obtaining the results requird - it was a method he viewed as safe (and if he thought it was safe, then it was), but unfortunately the misunderstandings of others brought a premature end to the majority of his research, and he was relegated to using dead strains of the virus in order to further his research. This, by and large, is one of the reasons that we still don't have a truly-effective HIV/AIDS vaccine today, in my opinion. His combined MMR vaccine has also been the subject of much controversy, including speculation that it could increase the chances of babies developing Autism after receiving the jab. A recent BBC Radio 4 documentary, presented by his daughter, stated that to this day, no conclusive evidence has been brought forward by anybody which proves any kind of link between the jab and Autism, except for a small amount of inconclusive, circumstantial evidence, much of which has since been considered either flawed or vastly over-hyped. For example, the BUPA site carries an article entitled "MMR/Autism link is unlikely", which breaks down in detail the various arguments and discussion surrounding this debate, and debunks many of the myths. The article quotes Dr. Annabel Bentley, assistant medical director at BUPA:
Something everybody should listen to is this BBC documentary, which I was listening to the day I was moving all the things out of my room in University Halls back in June (June the 21st, in fact) - "BBC Radio 4: The Vaccine Hunter" (requires RealPlayer). It's presented by Jeryl-Lynn Hilleman, Maurice's daughter (and the source of the original strain of Mumps infection which is still used in vaccines for the disease today). It's half an hour of your life which I definitely think is worth dedicating to listening to this documentary (and pay close attention, you will definitely learn something from it). That I am even writing this blog post should help you to appreciate the level of importance which Helleman and his work has in our world and our society - he is one of the most important scientists to have ever lived, in terms of saving lives, developing cures for then-commonplace illnesses and helping to improve and further society's ability to cope with disease. In the future, if an avian flu pandemic occurs, Helleman's work will be pivotal to the development and widespread rollout of an effective vaccine against the virus, and yet the majority of people who survive thanks to it won't even know about him. This is my attempt to help introduce just a few more people to the marvels of his achievements, right up until his death last year. Further reading (and listening!)... BBC News: 'Number one enemy of child infections" BUPA: "MMR/Autism link is unlikely" The NJ Assoc. for Biomedical Research: "The Man Who Saved Your Life - Maurice R. Hilleman - Developer of Vaccines for Mumps and Pandemic Flu" And, of course, what Wikipedia has to say on Maurice Hilleman (includes more referenced reading). Listen again to BBC Radio 4's documentary, "Maurice R. Hilleman: The Vaccine Hunter". (To listen to the documentary requires RealPlayer, but it's worth it if only for this. If you don't want to install RealPlayer, go Google for 'Real Alternative', an excellent hack which lets you play Real format files without needing RealPlayer installed, and which I have installed on my PC. Of course, you could always use VLC to play the file, too.) Happy learning... Technorati tags: Maurice Hilleman MMR vaccine vaccination epidemic profile Dragged out of Christopher's memory and pasted into his blog at 7/17/2006 02:47:00 PM. Roughly. Blog ID: 115314408058937405· | Permalink |
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