Unsung hero

Dr Sambhu Nath De: unsung hero

the best way to describe the discovery of cholera toxin by Dr Sambhu Nath De in Calcutta (now known as Kolkata). In a pioneering series of research spanning less than a decade starting from 1952 and culminating in the Nature paper of 19591, De worked relentlessly in search of the elusive toxin that caused the epidemic responsible for the killer disease cholera. De’s discovery of cholera toxin w...

Lessons learned from an unsung hero: Gloria Niemeyer Francke.

Dennis B. Worthen, Lloyd Scholar at the Lloyd Library and Museum in Cincinnati, OH, has done our profession a service of great importance by initiating the series published in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, ‘‘Heroes of Pharmacy.’’ The first 28 profiles of pharmacy’s early heroes have also been compiled in a book by the same title published by the American Pharmacists Assoc...

Joseph Goldberger: an unsung hero of American clinical epidemiology.

Pellagra, a disease rarely seen in developed countries today, was common during the first half of this century in the United States. The disease was initially believed to be infectious, and severe "pellagraphobia" left many victims and their families ostracized. This paper calls attention to Joseph Goldberger, an American physician whose remarkable research helped correct the erroneous belief i...

Vivien Thomas: master craftsman, gifted teacher, and unsung hero.

The Eradication of Yaws - and its unsung hero.

Yaws or ‘puru’ is a skin ulcer that occurs mainly in the hot wet regions of the earth. The bacteria that causes it is indistinguishable in shape and size from the syphilis bacteria, but it is transmitted by skin contact. It was said that of the many diseases prevalent in the Malay states early in the twentieth century, none was of more concern and importance to the Malays than ‘puru’. Although ...