The little-known face of World War II. The vaccines developed then saved the lives of millions

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We can consider the Second World War as one of the turning points in the history of vaccinology, a relatively young branch of medicine dealing with immunization. During earlier conflicts, soldiers died more often from disease than from wounds received in combat. And from the First World War, mankind learned that flu can effectively thwart the ranks at the front. The 1918 Spanish pandemic caused nearly half of the deaths of US military personnel in Europe.

In the photo: Rudolf Weigl – zoologist and bacteriologist, professor at the University of Lviv, member of the Polish Academy of Learning. Situational photography in the laboratory during work

1. The flu vaccine saved US soldiers and British civilians
2. American soldiers were also vaccinated against yellow fever, tetanus, cholera, plague, and typhoid fever
3. Work at the Institute for Research on Typhus and Viruses in Lviv gave many Poles a chance to survive the war
4. More information can be found on the Onet homepage.

On the occasion of the 82nd anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, we would like to remind you of the text that we first published in 2020.

The era of vaccinological discoveries begins with the vaccine against rabies, first used by Louis Pasteur in 1885. Then, for almost 40 years, nothing happens, but not long after World War I, in 1923, the diphtheria vaccine appeared. By 1937, seven more had been developed and applied.

Just before the outbreak of World War II, there was full agreement that contagious disease on the battlefield was as dangerous an enemy as any other. Therefore, both the Germans and the Allies tried to win over academia and industry to develop new vaccines for the army.

The first flu vaccine licensed in the US was created in less than two years

The military needed vaccinations for dysentery, typhus and syphilis, but also for bacterial meningitis, pneumonia and tropical diseases. However, in 1941 the flu vaccine turned out to be the most urgent.

The first, containing whole viruses, was developed in 1937 by an American, Jonas Salk, who, after the war broke out, worked on its development under the generous patronage of the army. A flu commission was set up to gather knowledge on how to isolate, grow and purify the virus, and then developed production methods, safety and efficacy assessments. Thus, the first licensed flu vaccine in the US was created in less than two years.

With industry as a partner, war programs shaped a new research format that successfully translated laboratory results into working products. Also, the protection of intellectual property did not constitute an obstacle to the disclosure of information at the time. Therefore, research teams were able to consolidate and apply existing knowledge at a rapid pace.

In 1941, his influenza A vaccine was effective in soldiers at 70 percent. Admittedly, it later turned out that it required annual adjustments to fit the new virus strains, but the development-to-use schedule was a remarkable achievement.

Several hundred thousand doses of the flu vaccine were shipped to Britain in the winter of 1940/41, although flu deaths accounted for only a third of the deaths recorded during corresponding periods of high incidence. The British were more concerned that the bomb attacks and the resulting damage to water and sewage systems would significantly increase the incidence of typhoid fever. This was prevented by disinfecting the repaired networks with chlorine.

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Nobel for yellow fever vaccine

The vaccine against yellow fever was developed in 1937 by the American physician Max Theiler. He was a tropical disease specialist, bacteriologist and epidemiologist from South Africa. Earlier in 1927, as an employee at Harvard Medical School in Boston, he proved that yellow fever is caused by a virus.

All men sent to the tropical front lines were vaccinated against the disease. The vaccine saved the lives of millions of soldiers. Theiler was awarded the Nobel Prize (1951) for his discoveries about yellow fever and how to combat it.

In the US military, vaccination of military personnel with tetanus toxoid also became the standard procedure during World War II, as was vaccination against cholera, plague and typhoid fever.

Prior to the Normandy landing, the Allies began mass-producing botulinum antitoxin in response to intelligence reports that the Germans loaded their V-1 missiles with botulinum toxin (botulism). And the Japanese encephalitis vaccine was developed in anticipation of the Allied land invasion of Japan.

Some of these vaccines are primitive by today’s standards, but they were effective back then.

In the 10s alone, the army commissioned the army to develop new or significantly improved vaccines for 28 of the XNUMX vaccine-preventable diseases identified at that time. The pharmaceutical industry has been working on projects with little or no profit potential because vaccines were considered an indispensable element of hostilitiesand participation in their development was a public obligation.

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Typhoid vaccine with Polish pedigree

Typhoid, or typhoid fever, is caused by typhoid fever (Salmonella typhi) which infect the intestines. The disease presents with severe abdominal pain, high fever, diarrhea and delirium. The latter symptom in particular distinguished typhus from other infectious diseases. We recognize the Lviv biologist Professor Rudolf Weigl as the inventor of the world’s first effective vaccine against typhus. It was produced on a large scale in Weigl’s laboratory in Lviv before World War II. The production was also continued during the war by subsequent occupiers – Germany and the USSR.

The Germans took action against the spread of typhus among Polish prisoners of war as early as October 1939. However, over the next year, the disease reached epidemic proportions in Eastern Europe. The Germans first cut off its fires, and then took strict measures to prevent typhus from entering the Reich.

On the old Polish-German border, a demarcation line was drawn, on which all people coming from the East were examined for lice transmitting the disease. In addition, all Germans in Poland and over 40 percent. Poles have been vaccinated. Jews were not vaccinated, although the death rate due to typhus in the Warsaw ghetto ranged between 300 and 400 people a day. The vaccine obviously came from Lviv.

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The methods of its production have not changed, and the Weigl Institute has become a safe place for students, intellectuals and the Home Army. The professor (Austrian by origin, and a Pole by conviction) decided to run the Research Institute of Spotted Typhus and Viruses for the purposes of the Wehrmacht. He forced the Germans the right to complete freedom in the selection of personnel, taking full responsibility for them. Employment with Weigl gave protection against arrests during round-ups and deportation to concentration camps. The Gestapo was afraid of people who had contact with lice infected with typhus. Moreover, all workers were given ausweis from the Oberkommando des Herres (German Army Command Office), which was another life-saving invention by Weigl.

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The professor also protected many dismissed scientists by employing them as lice feeders, which additionally allowed them to receive higher rations. The feeders were, among others mathematicians creating the famous Lviv School of Mathematics headed by Professor Banach. Since feeding took about an hour a day, the feeders organized secret classes and academic classes at the institute.

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The material was created thanks to cooperation with a 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

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