Prevention

    Who is this STUD?    

Nobel Prize winner                When Baruch Blumberg set out to quench his curiosity of the genetic

Dr.Baruch Blumberg         polymorphisms and the rate of their occurance in human populations, who                                  knew that he would in fact stumble upon one of the greatest scientific finds of                                  all time? Blumberg looked at the incredible diversity amongst antigenic variants in blood, and eventually found the Australian Aborigine antigen (Au). Identified as the surface antigen to Hepatitis B, this information was used to create a Hepatitis B vaccine, responsible for decreasing incidence rate in Taiwan from 15% to 1% in the past twlve years Now, don't you think that merits a

Nobel Prize? Previous students in my course Humans and Viruses conducted an interview with

Dr. Blumberg in 1997. I conducted a followup interview this year that you can read below.

What's new: An Interview Update with Dr. B!   

Me: Is there anything new to report about your vaccine? Are there any newly pioneered domains of

research being applied to your vaccine today? 

      Dr. Blumberg replied that the vaccine has been in effect for over 10 years, and that he is proud of recent

reports from several locations worldwide, telling of HBV frequency rates dropping from 12-15% in areas such as

Korea and Taiwan to a mere 1-2%. In Japan, rates have dropped from 2-#% to 0.1-0.2% incidence. A dramatic drop

of HBV  carriers has occured in North America as well.

        In terms of new research, there are always studies going on to improve on the effectiveness of the vaccine in

order to better preventative techniques. Taiwan recently came out with a population study in which the national

immunization policy was examined for efficacy. Results illustrated a 2/3 incidence drop of 40-50 year olds with

liver cancer due to their having been immunized on or before age 10. Dr. Blumberg then emphasized the fact that

liver cancer is responsible for 85% of the world's primary cancer cases, second only to lung cancer. The fact that

liver cancer can be controlled in this way gives future generations hope for successful prevention of something that

has in the past thought to have been incurable.

 

*Me: If the HBV vaccine can be used to study possible ways of combatting cancer. Is there any way its

principle methods can be applied to a future HIV vaccine? If HBV is even more infectious, why hasn't it

received as much press?        

Dr. Blumberg replied, "People aren't as upset by it" and therefore are less likely to fund it. Reality is that

HBV affects the same population group as HIV, but is not as prevalent a problem in North America as it is

in Asia or Africa. The initial response to AIDS occurred due to the fact that everyone seemed to die from HIV.

Acute Hepatitis B is usually cured, and incidence of chronic Hepatitis B varied as well as its mortality rates.

For most people, AIDS is a scarier thing.

 

*Me: Are there any barriers to the success of your vaccine today?

Not everyone responds to the vaccine, although it has a success rate of about 95%. There is a possibility

for the need to develop a new vaccine should HBV start to become resistant to the current vaccine. However,

that does not seem likely for sometime. What does pose a great problem today are countries such as those

in Africa, where there are only 4-5 vaccination centers for 30-40 countries. There is a great economic barrier

there in comparison to Asia, India being an exception where immunization programs are nonexistent as well.

 

*Me: OK. Now I want to get to what the other interview didn't dare ask. I'm curious. Where does one keep a

Nobel Prize? Is it like an Oscar, displayed on your mantle somewhere?

The Nobel Prize is actually a big gold medallion, and right now I think it's sitting in a safe in Philidelphia.

 

*Me: When you are not busy saving people's lives, what do you like to do for fun?

Dr. Blumberg told me he enjoyed being in nature: canoeing, hiking, and biking.

 

*Me: I know you've travelled almost everywhere in the world. But if you could choose to be somewhere right

now, where would it be?

Home in Philidelphia with my wife (so sweet!) Dr. Blumberg also mentioned wanting to visit his four children,

two of whom are residing in England.

 

*Me: What is your favorite book?

Conrad books: Lord Jim , Heart of Darkness...

            

Interview conducted Monday March 2, 1999.

To learn more about the HBV vaccine, try this link!