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Scarlet fever is an infectious disease resulting from a group A streptococcus infection, also known as Streptococcus pyogenes. The signs and symptoms include a sore throat, fever, headaches, swollen lymph nodes, and a characteristic rash. The rash is red and feels like sandpaper and the tongue may be red and bumpy. It most commonly affects children between five and 15 years of age.
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Pierre Paul Émile Roux FRS was a French physician, bacteriologist and immunologist. Roux was one of the closest collaborators of Louis Pasteur (1822–1895), a co-founder of the Pasteur Institute, and responsible for the institute's production of the anti-diphtheria serum, the first effective therapy for this disease. Additionally, he investigated cholera, chicken-cholera, rabies, and tuberculosis. Roux is regarded as a founder of the field of immunology.
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Dr. Anna Wessels Williams (1863–1954) was an American pathologist at the first municipal diagnostic laboratory in the United States. She used her medical training from the Women's Medical College of the New York Infirmary for research rather than medical practice, and over the course of her career worked on developing vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests for many diseases, including diphtheria, rabies, scarlet fever, smallpox, influenza, and meningitis. Notably, a strain of diphtheria-causing bacteria that Williams isolated and cultivated was instrumental in producing an antitoxin to bring the disease under control. In 1932, she became the first woman to be elected chair of the laboratory section of the American Public Health Association.
Alphonse Raymond Dochez was an American physician and microbiologist. His research focused on infectious diseases, including scarlet fever, the common cold, and pneumococcal pneumonia. Dochez is credited with developing the first effective treatment for scarlet fever. His work also established viruses as the cause of the common cold.
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Paul Gibier (1851–1900) was a French doctor and bacteriologist, a researcher into contagious diseases, who founded the New York Pasteur Institute. This was a pioneering private research laboratory concerned with developing bio-medical cures including vaccines and anti-toxins. He was also known for his interest in psychic phenomena.
The 1894 Hong Kong plague, part of the third plague pandemic, was a major outbreak of the bubonic plague in Hong Kong. While the plague was harshest in 1894, it returned annually between 1895 and 1929, and killed over 20,000 in total, with a fatality rate of more than 93%. The plague was a major turning point in the history of colonial Hong Kong, as it forced the colonial government to reexamine its policy towards the Chinese community, and invest in the wellbeing of the Chinese.
Ruth May Tunnicliff was an American physician, medical researcher, bacteriologist, and pathologist, based in Chicago. She developed a serum against measles, and did laboratory research for the United States Army during the 1918 influenza pandemic.
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References
- ↑ "A Scarlet Fever Serum" (PDF). New York Times . November 3, 1902. p. 8.
- ↑ A Scarlet Fever Serum, New York Times, February 5, 1903, pg. 8.
- ↑ Scarlet Fever Serum Discovered, New York Times, February 3, 1903, pg. 9.
- ↑ A Scarlet Fever Serum, New York Times, February 5, 1903, pg. 8.
- ↑ Find Scarlet Fever Germ, New York Times, July 23, 1923, pg. 14.
- ↑ "Doctors Reveal Serum Secrets; Story of Scarlet Fever Research Work Told". Indianapolis Times . January 25, 1924. Retrieved December 15, 2021– via Chronicling America.
- ↑ Raymond Dochez, Researcher, Dies, New York Times, July 1, 1964, pg. 35.
- ↑ Cushing, H. B. Results of the Use of Scarlet Fever Antitoxin. Canadian Medical Association Journal. August, 1926, pg. 936.
- ↑ Zingher, Abraham . The Dick Test and Active Immunization With Scarlet Fever Streptococcus Toxin *. American Journal of Public Health . November, 1924, pg. 955.
- ↑ Scarlet Fever Far From Conquered, New York Times, July 23, 1930, pg. 10.