Born 5 Apr 1901; died 24 Jun 1968 at age 67.
Published
American #pediatrician and #microbiologist whose groundbreaking work on #Influenza #Meningitis significantly reduced #infant death rates and advanced the field of microbiological genetics.
She made a major contribution in her third published paper (1939), devising an anti-influenzal rabbit #serum against H. influenzae type b, the causative #organism of a then almost uniformly fatal meningitis in infants and #children. Her antiserum reduced the mortality rate to 20 percent.
When the advent of #antibiotics made the antiserum obsolete, she quickly mastered their use against all the #bacterial #meningitides.
Late in her career--the 1950s and 60s--she became a pioneer in #microbial #genetics.
Over 30 years she published some 70 papers.
