Born 15 Mar 1860; died 25 Oct 1930 at age 70.

Waldemar Mordecai Wolfe Haffkine was a Russian-British #bacteriologist who worked to #reduce #deaths by #cholera. He worked under Émile Roux at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, taking a particular interest in cholera, since epidemics were frequent in Europe. In 1892, he prepared an attenuated strain of cholera culture. He believed in its safely and he tested it on himself after self-injecting a concentrated #strain. In 1893, he went to #India, where he inoculated 45,000 people to #protect them #against #endemic cholera, despite difficult working conditions, a suspicious population, even with opposition from British medical officials. He reduced the death rate by 70% among those inoculated. He also attempted to produce a #vaccine against the #plague.