On Thursday, September 2, 2021, Google Doodle commemorates Rudolf Weigl – a Polish scientist who discovered, inter alia, typhus vaccine. Who was the researcher almost unknown in Poland? His story is extremely fascinating.
- Having a typhus vaccine was a very important matter for the armies fighting on the fronts of World War I and II
- During the occupation, the researcher supported the Polish resistance movement. His institute allowed about five thousand people to survive
- The authorities of the Polish People’s Republic recognized Weigl as a non grata person. Most likely, it was Polish politicians who thwarted his chances of winning the Nobel Prize
- You can find more similar stories on the TvoiLokony home page
In 1907, Rudolf Weigl graduated from the Faculty of Biology at the University of Lviv. It was there that he obtained his postdoctoral degree six years later, which opened the way for an independent scientific career. After the outbreak of World War I, Weigl was called up to the medical service of the Austro-Hungarian army and began researching typhus and its causes. Weigl worked in a military hospital in Przemyśl, where in 1918-1920 he was in charge of the Typhoid Research Laboratory. When starting research and experiments, discovered and developed a typhus vaccine. His invention was to use lice as laboratory animals, which made possible further research on typhus.
– It’s a totally first-class head. I actually went to Poland only to see this great scientist, said Charles Nicolle, the French Nobel Prize winner, who met with a Pole. He repeatedly emphasized the merits of the Lviv researcher in the fight against typhus. He honored him, naming the scientist with the reaction determining the presence and species of the typhus germ.
- The military needed vaccines. World War II was a breakthrough
«Almost Nobel Prize Winner»
In 1930 Weigl was nominated as a candidate for the Nobel Prize from medicine or physiology. 20 outstanding scientists from Poland and Germany signed the application. Many were sure that the prize would go to the scientist from Lviv. Ultimately it did not happen. It was received by Karl Landsteiner for distinguishing four blood groups. But the Pole’s achievements were still colossal.
German occupation
In 1939, the professor, together with a group of research friends, left for Ethiopia (then Abyssinia), where he conducted research and treated the local population of typhus. Due to the threat of war, he decided to stop work and return to Lviv. After the Red Army entered the city, his institute continued its work and even expanded. The professor was at its head all the time. The military needed vaccines against the dangerous disease. The situation did not change after Germany attacked the USSR. In order to save as many of his countrymen as possible, the professor agreed to continue to head the local Institute for Research on Spotted Typhus and Viruses. The facility had already operated before the war, and Weigiel was its founder. The Institute gave effective protection to its employees, who were representatives of science, culture and the resistance movement – mainly the Home Army. It is estimated that five thousand people were saved in this way. people. It is also worth mentioning that the institute prepared vaccines on a mass scale, so sometimes some parties “went missing”. It usually fell into the hands of the resistance movement or prisoners imprisoned in camps.
How did it work in practice? The institute’s laborers were sent to camps and ghettos to officially download “typhus research material”. On this occasion, the researchers vaccinated whoever they could and gave the vaccines to the scientists behind the wires. And it was they who distributed the preparation further.
With requests and threats, the Germans repeatedly offered Weigel to accept the citizenship of the Reich. The professor, although born in Austria-Hungary, felt Polish and he refused every time.
- Hilary Koprowski – Polish hero of the fight against polio
Brutal post-war world
When the Soviet Army entered Lviv in 1944, the Polish researcher left for the Subcarpathian region. There was persona non grata in the new Polandbut the authorities had to tolerate him because of his recognized scientific position and achievements, even though they tried to make his life difficult. There was no place for a world-renowned biologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences. There are also assumptions that the authorities of the Polish People’s Republic behaved ambiguously when Weigl had a second chance for the Nobel prize in 1948. The professor continued his research at the Jagiellonian University, and later, until his retirement in 1951, at the University of Poznań. He died in 1957 in Zakopane at the age of 74.
The material was created thanks to the cooperation of Onet with its partner – the National Digital Archives, whose mission is to build a modern society aware of its past. NAC collects, stores and makes available photos, sound recordings and films. Digitized photos can be viewed at nac.gov.pl
Read also:
- 14 diseases that we (almost) forgot thanks to vaccinations
- Anti-Vaccines – Why Are They Dangerous? [BOOK FRAGMENT]
- Andrew Wakefield – guru of the anti-vaccination movement
The content of the medTvoiLokony website is intended to improve, not replace, the contact between the Website User and their doctor. The website is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Before following the specialist knowledge, in particular medical advice, contained on our Website, you must consult a doctor. The Administrator does not bear any consequences resulting from the use of information contained on the Website. Do you need a medical consultation or an e-prescription? Go to halodoctor.pl, where you will get online help – quickly, safely and without leaving your home.