Wolf Szmuness
Wolf Szmuness (March 12, 1919 – June 6, 1982) was a Polish-born epidemiologist who emigrated to and worked in the United States. He conducted research at the New York Blood Center and, from 1973, he was director of the Center's epidemiology laboratory. He designed and conducted the trials for the first vaccine to prove effective against hepatitis B.[1][2]
European beginnings
Szmuness was born in Warsaw, Poland on 12 March 1919. He studied medicine in Italy, but he returned to be with his family around the Nazi German invasion of Poland in 1939. As the Germans and Soviets occupied Poland, Szmuness was separated from his family, who were later killed by the Germans. Trapped in the Communist-occupied part of Poland, Szmuness traveled eastward to escape the advancing Nazis. He asked the Soviets to let him fight the Germans but was sent to Siberia as a prisoner.
Following a year of hard labour in the prison camp, Szmuness was appointed head of sanitary conditions. He later became the head epidemiologist in the local district. After release from detention in 1946, Szmuness completed his medical education at the University of
Szmuness married a Russian woman, Maya, and in 1959 was allowed to return to Poland. There, he continued his education at the University of Lublin and worked as an epidemiologist in municipal and regional health departments.
Szmuness's colleague
Emigration and life in the United States
In 1969, Szmuness, his wife and their daughter Helena were permitted to attend a scientific meeting in
Szmuness died of lung cancer in 1982.
Hepatitis B
Szmuness first became interested in the
AIDS Theory
A
References
- ^ a b c d Altman, Lawrence K. (8 June 1982). "DR. Wolf Szmuness is dead at 63; an epidemiologist and researcher". The New York Times.
- ^ "Reflections on Wolf Szmuness", Proceedings in Clinical and Biologic Research, Volume 182, 1985, (pp. 3–10) by Aaron Kellner
- ^ BBC NEWS | Health | Key HIV strain 'came from Haiti'