my country has been vaccinated against diphtheria in 1962. Since 1978, the country has included the Diphtheria vaccine in the childhood immunization program. Since then, diphtheria has been combined with pertussis and tetanus through combined vaccination. Prevention. By 2018, diphtheria has disappeared in our country for nearly 10 years. Today, we may be very new to this disease.
However, this disease was once one of the most deadly infectious diseases in human history, and it has repeatedly ravaged the world.
Last time when we talked about the advent of BCG, we mentioned "serum therapy"-the infusion of serum from immune donors to unimmunized recipients for the treatment of infectious diseases. Even today, the antiserum derived from convalescent patients is still a powerful treatment against viral infections.
Li Lanjuan academician
In fact, serum therapy was discovered in the process of conquering the deadly infectious disease of diphtheria. Its discoverer, Emil von Behring (Emil von Behring) therefore won the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901.
Although the great success of serum therapy greatly stimulated the development of vaccines, Dr. Beilin, as the discoverer, failed to benefit from this discovery. In 1917, when the research on tuberculosis reached an important juncture, Behring died under the attack of tuberculosis bacteria.
Today, let’s talk about the legendary journey from the discovery of serum therapy to the conquering of diphtheria and the advent of the diphtheria vaccine.
01
from a small village to the battlefield
The touch of the medical doctor Belin
March 15, 1854In a small village in the Kingdom of Prussia (now part of Poland), the fifth child of a family fell to the ground. He is the German medical scientist Emil von Behring (Emil von Behring) who will have fruitful results in the history of immunology in the future.
Emil Adolf von Behring
Emil Adolf von Behring, 1854.3.15-1917.3.31
Behring’s family has many children, and 8 more children after him, And his father was just a poor village teacher. When Beilin was 10 years old, he was determined to become a doctor after witnessing his father being treated for a serious illness (roundworms penetrated into the biliary tract).
Due to family financial distress, he gave up the idea of going to medical school, took another path, decided to join the army and become a military doctor.
After the Franco-Prussian War started, Behring took to the battlefield as a military doctor. In order to treat more wounded as soon as possible, he often went to the front with the stretcher team to rescue the soldiers who had just fallen.
Once, in the process of rescuing the wounded, he was hit by a stray bullet in his shoulder and he was carried onto the operating table.
At that time, there was only the last needle left for the pain relief. Behring asked the surgeon to inject another soldier because that was a soldier waiting to be sawed.
But unexpectedly, the soldier pulled out his pistol and threatened the doctor to inject Beilin. Because military doctors can treat more people.
Beilin received the painkiller with tears. The screams of soldiers and the scenes of blood and blood warfare made him wish that he must live to alleviate human suffering in this life! He knew that in order to save the dying and heal the wounded, he still needs to master more knowledge.
02
diphtheria,The deadly killer
"hidden leather"
Diphtheria (Diphtheria) is an acute respiratory infection caused by Diphtheria . The name
Diphtheria is derived from in Greek "diphthe-ria", which means "hidden leather".
This is an ancient disease. Similar cases are described in ancient Hebrew and Greek literature: once a patient appears in the community, the horn will be sounded as an "alarm".
In the 17th century, diphtheria was like an ugly demon. With urban development and population mobility, it periodically took the lives of many children and became a nightmare for many families. By the 19th century, diphtheria had been one of the main "killers" that threatened children's health.
In the 1920s, in the United States alone, there were 100,000 to 200,000 illnesses each year, and the annual death toll was about 15,000, mainly children. The situation in Europe is more serious, with approximately 50,000 deaths from the disease every year.
patients mostly have fever, suffocation, dog barking cough and other symptoms, and a gray-white membranous exudate is produced in the pharynx, tonsils and surrounding tissues. Once this pseudomembrane falls off, it will cause acute blockage of the children’s trachea and death. In severe cases, myocarditis and nerve palsy can also be complicated, and there are obvious symptoms of systemic poisoning.
Diphtheria-infected skin
03
Conquered diphtheria, inspired by traditional Chinese medicine classics 135 _strong34h _strong
h132 _strong34h_strong h132Behring came to the well-known Koch Institute at the time and engaged in bacterial research. One of the important research topics was diphtheria.At first, Behring tried to kill Diphtheria bacillus by sterilizing with argon and mercury, but the results failed.
Beilin has a Japanese colleague named Shibasaburo Kitasato. He is proficient in Chinese medical classics and admires Hua Tuo and Li Shizhen very much.
Kitasasaisaburo
One day, he said to Beilin: "There is a medical theory in Chinese medical books called "contamination with poison", such as using arsenic, a highly toxic drug to treat human parasites. In Europe, qin The smallpox vaccine created by and the rabies vaccine developed by Pasteur are examples of the use of poisons. Can we prevent and treat diseases based on this medical theory?"
Kitasato Beilin's statement greatly inspired Beilin, and they did what they said and started to experiment. They injected the serum of mice that had been suffering from diphtheria but were still healthy and alive into the bodies of mice that were newly infected with diphtheria, and found that the mice that were newly infected with diphtheria had miraculously recovered!
Around 1890, Beilin (right) was experimenting with the guinea pig in the hands of his assistant. He believed that the surviving guinea pig serum contained something that might kill the bacillus diphtheriae. After repeated experiments, he proposed the serum Injection can be used as an effective treatment for diphtheria, and the door to serum therapy has since opened.
In 1890, Beilin and Shibasaburo Kitasato jointly published their research results, proposing the theory that patients can be treated by injecting antitoxin serum. At that time, this theory has been confirmed by animal experiments, but there is no precedent for its application in humans.
The first case of human application of antitoxin serum was a Berlin girl. In December 1891,On Christmas Day, a girl with diphtheria was dying in the pediatric ward of the clinic of the University of Berlin.
The girl's parents decided to try a groundbreaking therapy for their daughter-they asked Beilin to inject a "new medicine" for her daughter.
Beilin injected the girl with a diphtheria antitoxin serum. The next day, the girl's condition improved significantly, and she was discharged after a week!
This is the first successful case of curing diphtheria patients with goat serum in human history. The Christmas background coupled with the incredible curative effect made this event cast a sense of mystery, and it was called the "Christmas Salvation".
Diphtheria, which once claimed the lives of countless children, was subdued by humans. This is an important milestone in the history of medicine. Serum therapy, an important method for humans to prevent and treat infectious diseases, was born.
04
Stay loyal to the oath and continue to work harder
Dr. Bellin needs to create another "miracle" for clinical work. Develop production standards. At this time, bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich joined Behring’s research team.
German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich
Ehrlich devised a quantitative method to determine antitoxin therapeutic units. With his assistance, the problem of producing antitoxins was solved, and Behring began to use serum therapy to treat diphtheria.
After using serum therapy to treat diphtheria with good results, Behring did not stop there.
In 1893, at the age of 39, Behring won the title of professor.In 1895, he became the director of the Marburg Institute of Health. Here, he further carried out the research and development of antitoxin products.
Behring has developed a toxin and antitoxin mixed drug, in which the antitoxin can provide instant passive immunity , and the toxin can stimulate the body to produce its own inherent antitoxin, for a long time active immunity . This opens up a new way in the medical field.
To commend Beilin for his pioneering contribution to antitoxin serum therapy, especially his achievements in the prevention and treatment of diseases such as diphtheria and tetanus, in 1901, the Nobel Prize Jury awarded Beilin the first physiology or medicine prize :
"His serum therapy, especially in the prevention of diphtheria, opened up a new path for the medical sciences; since then, doctors have a weapon to win in the face of illness and death."
1913, Bei Lin successfully developed a diphtheria vaccine. This is a combined injection vaccine to prevent diphtheria-diphtheria TAT (toxin and antitoxin), which contains an appropriate amount of toxins used to stimulate the immune system and antitoxins to prevent toxins from causing diseases.
The vaccine was confirmed to be safe and effective in the subsequent diphtheria epidemic, and was rated by the media as "one of the seven wonders of the modern world alongside airplanes, radios, radium, trains, human transplants, and generators." After
, Behring focused on researching the treatment of tuberculosis. Regrettably, in 1917, when the research on tuberculosis reached an important juncture, Behring died under the attack of tuberculosis bacteria at the age of 63.
"
Create a better vaccine
for the benefit of human health
Vaccine science base _strong34
0
strong Understand Miao Miao together,Hit Miao Miao
.
0
strong Understand Miao Miao together,Hit Miao Miao
