Each of us is more or less familiar with some of the vaccines that all children now have in order from birth. These vaccines are very important at the point of not facing possible diseases.
What if we told Hilleman that we owe it to Hilleman that we don’t get caught in some diseases that used to cause thousands of people to die?
Maurice Hilleman’s discoveries that would greatly affect human life began when he was still in college.
Hilleman, who studied virology at the University of Chicago, first sought remedies for Chlamydia disease, which is caused by bacteria called Chlamydia trachomatis. He soon made a name for himself with a great discovery for this ailment.
A few years later, instead of continuing his education at the university, he switched to the pharmaceutical manufacturing field and started working for a pharmaceutical company. Meanwhile, II. World War II had broken out, and American soldiers were suffering from a virus spread by mosquito bites that caused various brain damage.
Thinking that he had to do something, Hilleman developed a vaccine against this disease called Japanese Encephalitis and saved the lives of many soldiers.
In addition, this scientist did not remain indifferent to this epidemic when the Asian flu began to spread. He gathered his colleagues together and thought they might develop a vaccine for the Asian flu, just as they had cured Chlamydia and Japanese Encephalitis. Hilleman succeeded in this as a result of long efforts.
Not long after, Hilleman’s daughter fell ill with mumps, and the scientist, looking for ways to cure her as soon as possible, took her daughter’s mucus and saliva samples and began to examine them in the laboratory.
At that time, mumps killed about 70,000 Americans.
Hilleman’s job was not that easy this time, but after dozens of trials, he was successful in this vaccine study. He tested the vaccine he produced on his daughter and got positive results and saved the lives of more than a million people at that time.
The contributions of this scientist to human health are not limited to these. Hilleman, who managed to develop 14 different vaccines in total; managed to shelve measles, rubella, mumps, chickenpox, meningitis, hepatitis A, hepatitis B and persistent influenza diseases, thanks to the vaccines it developed.
In fact, if we are not struggling with these diseases today, thanks to Maurice Hilleman. It is a big question mark why we do not recognize and continue to appreciate this name, which has achieved such great success and saves the lives of approximately 8 million people every year.
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