George W. Comstock

An epidemiologist, in the late 1940s a vaccine looked promising to combat tuberculosis, which was running rampant. Comstock was assigned to test the latest "BCG" vaccine to ensure it was truly effective, but his study came to the startling conclusion that it was not -- just in time to stop the planned immunization of children. He then set to work to find something that would help contain the disease, and by 1952 had found that the drug isoniazid (INH) worked to prevent and treat tuberculosis. It has proved so effective that it's still a first-line treatment today. Comstock then founded the Johns Hopkins Training Center for Public Health Research and Prevention, where he worked for 30 years researching cancer, heart disease and other public health problems. Dr. Comstock never retired: he worked until a few days before his death on July 15, from prostate cancer. He was 92. From This is True for 15 July 2007 Suggestions for further reading: Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors by Susan Sontag Amazon Price: $9.80 Customer Review: There are already many good reviews so I will only suggest reading the following books in addition to Sontag's, all of them relevant for those interested in the social history of ideas: 1) "A Terrible Beauty: The People and Ideas That Shaped the Mode...   Basic Infection Control for Healthcare Providers by Michael Kennamer Amazon Price: $19.96 Customer Review: If you want a book that tells you everything from what T cell is to the incubation period for measles, this book is it. I learned so much information from this book that I though I "knew" except that when I started reading, I realized I...   Living in the Shadow of Death: Tuberculosis and the Social Experience of Illn... by Sheila M. Rothman Amazon Price: $24.03 Customer Review: As Rothman, ruefully notes in her book there have been studies of medicine from the perspective of the doctor and from the perspective of the disease but not from the perspective of the patient. Thus, Dr. Rothman sets out to do "a histo...   Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag Amazon Price:   The Air We Breathe: A Novel by Andrea Barrett Amazon Price: Customer Review: The book arrived in fine shape, as expected and on time. It's what you hope for and expect   Newsfeed display by CaRP

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