{"id":5129,"date":"2014-04-24T14:09:54","date_gmt":"2014-04-24T18:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/?p=5129"},"modified":"2015-06-04T14:32:26","modified_gmt":"2015-06-04T18:32:26","slug":"pioneering-measles-vaccine-researcher-has-anecdotes-insight-perspective-and-generosity-to-spare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/pioneering-measles-vaccine-researcher-has-anecdotes-insight-perspective-and-generosity-to-spare\/2014\/04\/24\/","title":{"rendered":"Pioneering Measles Vaccine Researcher Has Anecdotes, Insight, Perspective, and Generosity to Spare"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/04\/people_measles51.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5139\" alt=\"people_measles5\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/04\/people_measles51.jpg\" width=\"108\" height=\"130\" \/><\/a>In the new IDSA\/Oxford University Press journal <a href=\"http:\/\/ofid.oxfordjournals.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Open Forum Infectious Diseases<\/em><\/a> (OFID), we plan to interview a series of great figures in ID about their experiences, posting them as podcasts with accompanying scripts.<\/p>\n<p>Our first interview is with <a href=\"http:\/\/dhvi.duke.edu\/investigators\/samuel-l-katz-md\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Samuel Katz<\/a>, a key figure in development of the measles vaccine, and it can be heard <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.oxfordjournals.org\/our_journals\/ofid\/dr.%20katz%20-%20measles.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s timely for several reasons. First, World Immunization Week starts <a href=\"http:\/\/www.who.int\/campaigns\/immunization-week\/2014\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\">today<\/a>; second,\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/preview\/mmwrhtml\/mm6316a4.htm?s_cid=mm6316a4_w\" target=\"_blank\">MMWR<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>just released a summary of the staggering health benefits of the &#8220;Vaccines for Children&#8221; program, created 20 years ago in response to the last big measles outbreak in this country; and third, the <em>Annals of Internal Medicine<\/em> has just published a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.annals.org\/article.aspx?doi=10.7326\/M14-0892\">thoughtful commentary<\/a> on the difficulty of identifying measles in an era when so few clinicians have ever seen a case.<\/p>\n<p>I encourage you to listen to the full interview, but here are some highlights:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 13px\">What it was like working in the lab of Nobel laureate\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nobelprize.org\/nobel_prizes\/medicine\/laureates\/1954\/enders-bio.html\" target=\"_blank\">John Enders<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li>How they tested the attenuated measles virus first in monkeys, and then on themselves (!)<\/li>\n<li>Planning and conducting the first clinical trial<\/li>\n<li>Expansion of the vaccine to international use<\/li>\n<li>How Dr. Katz views the anti-vaccine movement<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are some great stories in there, all suffused with an extraordinary generosity of spirit and humility.\u00a0You&#8217;ve heard the phrase &#8220;humble to a fault&#8221;? We&#8217;ve got a prime candidate in Dr. Samuel Katz!<\/p>\n<p>After all, what other medical advances have had quite the health benefits of a safe, highly effective vaccine &#8212; especially for a disease as contagious and potentially serious as measles? Or, to extract some key data from the <em>MMWR<\/em> cited above:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Because of vaccination, approximately 322 million illnesses,\u00a021 million hospitalizations, and 732,000 premature deaths will be prevented among children born during [the past 20 years], at a cost savings to society of $1.38 trillion.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That pretty much says it all.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the new IDSA\/Oxford University Press journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases (OFID), we plan to interview a series of great figures in ID about their experiences, posting them as podcasts with accompanying scripts. Our first interview is with Dr. Samuel Katz, a key figure in development of the measles vaccine, and it can be heard [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8,9],"tags":[489,592,967],"class_list":["post-5129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-infectious-diseases","category-patient-care","category-policy","tag-immunizations","tag-measles","tag-vaccines"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}