Maurice Hilleman
Developed over 40 vaccines; saved millions of lives annually.
Last updated
via Wikipedia: Maurice Hilleman · see source
One estimate indicates that the vaccines he developed prevent close to eight million deaths annually.[1]
Life and work
Hilleman was born on a farm near Miles City, Montana, on August 30, 1919.[2][3] Hilleman credited much of his success to his work with chickens as a boy.[4] In 1957, Hilleman was one of the earliest scientists to realize that an influenza outbreak occurring in Hong Kong had the potential to turn into a massive global pandemic.[5][3] Acting on an intuition, he and a colleague worked for nine days, each lasting 14 hours, to confirm it was a novel flu strain capable of causing millions of deaths.[5]
In 1963, his daughter Jeryl Lynn fell ill with the mumps; he then took material from her and used it to create the foundation for a mumps vaccine.[6] Hilleman regarded his efforts on the hepatitis B vaccine as his most important accomplishment.[7]
What the cited sources add
The same source notes that in 1927, at age eight, Hilleman nearly died from diphtheria.[3] The Independent reports that Hilleman achieved a vaccine against Marek's disease, which causes lymphoma in chickens.[8] The Scientific American Blog Network account says Hilleman survived diphtheria and Great Depression-era poverty to earn his PhD.[9] The National Geographic article states that Hilleman proved chlamydia was a bacteria instead of a virus as a doctoral student.[10]
The National Geographic article also notes that Hilleman's name was not included on the paper proving his hepatitis B vaccine was effective.[10] The Embryo Project Encyclopedia notes that Hilleman's MMR vaccine prevented many diseases, including rubella, in millions of children and pregnant women.[3]
References
- Wikipedia, "Maurice Hilleman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Newman, "Maurice Hilleman", BMJ: British Medical Journal, 2005-04-30, p. 1028; Dove, "Maurice Hilleman", Nature Medicine, April 2005, p. S2; Offit, Paul A., "Vaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases", Smithsonian, 2007; "Maurice Hilleman", www.telegraph.co.uk, 14 April 2005; "Maurice Ralph Hilleman (1919–2005) The Embryo Project Encyclopedia", Arizona State University; Dove, "Maurice Hilleman", Nature Medicine, April 2005, p. S2; Newman, "Maurice Hilleman", BMJ: British Medical Journal, 2005-04-30, p. 1028; en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Maurice Hilleman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "World Who's who in Science: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Scientists from Antiquity to the Present", 1968 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Maurice Ralph Hilleman (1919–2005) The Embryo Project Encyclopedia", Arizona State University. facts only, no text reused. embryo.asu.edu
- Wikipedia, "Maurice Hilleman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Offit, Paul A., "Vaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases", Smithsonian, 2007 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Maurice Hilleman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Maurice Ralph Hilleman (1919–2005) The Embryo Project Encyclopedia", Arizona State University; Simpson, "The Man Who Beat the 1957 Flu Pandemic", Scientific American Blog Network; "This virologist saved millions of children—and stopped a pandemic", National Geographic, 2020-05-29 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Maurice Hilleman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Offit, "Vaccinated : one man's quest to defeat the world's deadliest diseases", Harper Collins, 2008, p. 24 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Maurice Hilleman" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Offit, "Vaccinated : one man's quest to defeat the world's deadliest diseases", Smithsonian Books, 2007, p. 140 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "Maurice Hilleman", The Independent, April 19, 2005. facts only, no text reused. independent.co.uk
- Simpson, "The Man Who Beat the 1957 Flu Pandemic", Scientific American Blog Network, 2020-04-19. facts only, no text reused. blogs.scientificamerican.com
- "This virologist saved millions of children—and stopped a pandemic", National Geographic, 2020-05-29. facts only, no text reused. nationalgeographic.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Maurice Hilleman (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Maurice Hilleman (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the Codexery glossary, each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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