Maurice Hilleman, who saved millions of children, dies
Probert@lumbercartel.com Mark Probert
By LINDA A. JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer
April 12, 2005, 3:50 AM EDT
TRENTON, N.J. -- Each time an American mother takes her child to the
doctor's office for a checkup, she likely leaves with the fruits of Maurice
Hilleman's career -- vaccines that have helped put an end to childhood
miseries.
Hilleman, a microbiologist who helped save millions of young lives by
developing vaccines for mumps, measles, chickenpox and other maladies, died
Monday at Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia. He was 85.
Over his career, the Miles City, Mont., native led or began the development
of vaccines against diseases that once killed or hospitalized millions,
including measles, German measles, meningitis, pneumonia, bacterial
meningitis and hepatitis A and B. He began work on the mumps vaccine after
his daughter, Jeryl Lynn, developed the illness at age 5 in 1963.
"Maurice Hilleman will be historically remembered as the vaccinologist of
the 20th century," Dr. Robert C. Gallo, director of the Institute of Human
Virology at the University of Maryland, said in a prepared statement. "His
name will be joined forever with people like Pasteur and Koch in the story
of man's strivings against pathogens."
Hilleman worked for Whitehouse Station-based Merck & Co. Inc. for nearly 30
years before retiring in 1984 as senior vice president of Merck Research
Labs in West Point, Pa., the pharmaceutical company said.
Hilleman joined Merck in 1957 as head of its new virus and cell biology
research department, after a decade as chief of respiratory diseases at
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
He is credited with developing more vaccines than any person. He also was a
co-discoverer of the adenoviruses, and discovered changes in the flu virus
known as "drift." By monitoring these changes, public health agencies now
track new flu viruses and create vaccines to prevent them.
"His work has saved literally millions of lives and has protected many
millions more from disease," said Dr. Adel F. Mahmoud, president of Merck
Vaccines. "Dr. Maurice Hilleman is one of the true scientific leaders of our
time."
Hilleman was a longtime adviser to the World Health Organization, the U.S.
National Vaccine Program and the National Institutes of Health's Office of
AIDS Research Program Evaluation. He was a member of several prestigious
scientific groups, including the U.S. National Academy of Science, and was
awarded the National Medal of Science by President Ronald Reagan in July
1988.
He is survived by his wife Lorraine, daughters Kirsten of New York City and
Jeryl Lynn of Palo Alto, Calif., and five grandchildren. Merck said it is
planning a public memorial service.
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On the Net: http://www.merck.com
Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.
Jeff
cerebrate another remarkable acheivement: The licensing of the first polio
vaccine that occurred 50 years ago today. The polio vaccines have prevented
perhaps 250,000 people from getting polio and 2-5% of these people (5,000 to
10,000 people) from dying from polio in the US alone.
Thanks to the work of Dr. Hilleman and his collegues, we no longer see kids
die from measles (the death rate is something like 0.05%, which works out to
1500 kids a year or thousands of kids born with rubella-related birth
defects. Fewer young adults die of liver cancer or other liver disease,
thanks to his work with hepatitis A and B vaccines.
Jeff