Stefania tells Laura the story of WALDEMAR HAFFKINE: a Ukrainian-born bacteriologist who developed an anti-cholera vaccine in 1892 at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. From the results of field trials in India from 1893 to 1896, he has been credited as having carried out the first effective prophylactic vaccination for a bacterial disease in man. When the plague pandemic reached Bombay, Haffkine became bacteriologist to the Government of (British) India. "He inspired so many scientists to take up vaccine research in the early 20th Century, but somehow his contributions were forgotten”. Born: March 15, 1860, Odessa, Ukraine; Died: October 26, 1930, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Episode Sources:

Hawgood, Barbara J. “Waldemar Mordecai Haffkine, CIE (1860-1930): prophylactic vaccination against cholera and bubonic plague in British India”. Journal of Medical Biography. Feb. 2007, Volume 15. https://www.jameslindlibrary.org/wp-data/uploads/2014/05/Haffkine-1896-Publication.pdf

Gunter, Joel and Pandey, Vikas. “Waldemar Haffkine: The vaccine pioneer the world forgot”, BBC News, Dec. 11, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55050012

Watson, Stephanie. “Cholera Epidemics: Five Pandemics in the Nineteenth Century”. Encyclopedia.com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cholera-epidemics-five-pandemics-nineteenth-century

Website for the Haffkine Institute for Training, Research & Testing. Info page about Dr. Waldemar Haffkine. http://www.haffkineinstitute.org/waldemar.htm

Waldemar Haffkine. Wikipedia.org. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldemar_Haffkine

Blumgart, Jake. “Should We Retire the Word ‘Slum’?”. Bloomberg, Oct. 10, 2017. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-10/the-case-for-retiring-the-word-slum