- Person
- Baruch Blumberg
- Lived
- 1925–2011
- Field
- Medicine
- From
- American
The story
A vaccine can protect those who have not yet been infected, but it cannot help the many millions of people already living with chronic hepatitis B. The World Health Organization estimates that about 240 million people were living with the infection in 2024, and that it causes more than a million deaths a year, mostly from cirrhosis and liver cancer. Blumberg wanted to help them too.
The Hepatitis B Foundation began in the early 1990s as a personal response to the disease. Joan Block, a nurse in Philadelphia, learned during a routine examination that she had chronic hepatitis B. Her husband, Tim Block, a virologist, changed the focus of his research to search for a cure, and together with their friends Jan and Paul Witte they created the foundation. According to the foundation, they did so with the personal support of Baruch Blumberg, and Wikipedia records that he took part in its founding.
At first the foundation was little more than a telephone line answering questions from people with the disease, at a time when there was almost nowhere else for them to turn. Blumberg served on its Scientific and Medical Advisory Board and as its distinguished scholar from 1992 until his death in 2011, and he kept an office at the foundation in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, where he was a regular presence.
His own laboratory work in those years also turned toward treatment. From the late 1980s he searched for antiviral compounds among plants used in folk medicine around the world to treat jaundice, studying one species, Phyllanthus amarus, in detail. That research did not produce an approved drug, but it reflected the same goal as the foundation: help for the hundreds of millions already infected.
The foundation grew into a professional organisation with global reach. In 2003 it established a research arm named the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, and in 2006 the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center, which houses both and supports young life-science companies. Today the foundation works on patient support, advocacy, awareness and research toward a cure for hepatitis B, hepatitis D and liver cancer.
Why it matters
Through the foundation, Blumberg's commitment extended beyond prevention to research toward a cure and support for people already living with the virus.
About Baruch Blumberg
Physician and geneticist who discovered the hepatitis B virus, co-invented its blood test and vaccine, and shared the 1976 Nobel Prize, work credited with preventing millions of liver cancers.
More about Baruch Blumberg
- Baruch Blumberg's blood test made transfusions saferBaruch Blumberg and Irving Millman developed a blood test for hepatitis B. Blood banks began screening donations with it in 1971, cutting transfusion infections.
- Baruch Blumberg found hepatitis B and its vaccineBaruch Blumberg identified the hepatitis B virus, developed its blood test and vaccine, and won the 1976 Nobel Prize. A colleague said he prevented more cancer deaths than anyone.
- Blumberg's vaccine cut child hepatitis B in China to 1%After hepatitis B vaccination was rolled out in China, infection among children fell from about 15 percent to about 1 percent within ten years, a measure of Baruch Blumberg's legacy.
- Baruch Blumberg defended the rights of hepatitis carriersBaruch Blumberg used his 1976 Nobel lecture to warn against shunning virus carriers, and later advised lawyers who won children with hepatitis B the right to attend school.
- Baruch Blumberg licensed his vaccine for the worldBaruch Blumberg and Irving Millman patented a new way to make a hepatitis B vaccine, then made sure it was licensed so drug companies could produce it for the public.
Sources
- Baruch Samuel Blumberg Wikipedia
- History of Hepatitis B Vaccine Hepatitis B Foundation
- About Us Hepatitis B Foundation
- Hepatitis B fact sheet World Health Organization
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.