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: $9.89 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...   Joe Gans: A Biography of the First African American World Boxing Champion by Colleen Aycock, Mark Scott Amazon Price: $35.95 Customer Review: Great Read, however, I am totally biased - Mark Scott is my son. Mae Scott   CURRENT Diagnosis & Treatment in Neurology (LANGE CURRENT Series) by John Brust Amazon Price: $68.20 Customer Review: Since neurology is so complex, neurology appointments are so short, and I have so many questions about what is going on in my head, I decided to educate myself on the subject. After reading 'Adrenaline, the Inner World', I moved on to this text. I...   Power in Numbers: UNITAID, Innovative Financing, and the Quest for Massive Good by Philippe Douste-Blazy, Daniel Altman Amazon Price: $9.32   La Dame aux Camélias (Oxford World's Classics) by Alexandre Dumas Amazon Price: $10.10 Customer Review: I don't like to criticise so negatively but this has no humor and is definitely not on the level of the elder Dumas. I would like to sell mine but the prices are too low and not worth a PO trip. I just want to enter another opinion but recognize that...   Newsfeed display by CaRP

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