000 03298cam a2200289 4500
001 9781473509375
008 180705t2017 xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020 _a9781473509375
020 _a1473509378
100 _aWadman, Meredith
245 4 _aThe vaccine race : how scientists used human cells to combat killer viruses
260 _a[London]
_bTransworld Digital
_c2017
500 _aDownloadable eBook.
500 _aNon fiction.
500 _aAdult.
520 _aRemote
520 _aThe epic and controversial story of a major breakthrough in cell biology that led to the creation of some of the world?s most important vaccines. Until the late 1960s, tens of thousands of children suffered crippling birth defects if their mothers had been exposed to rubella, popularly known as German measles, while pregnant; there was no vaccine and little understanding of how the disease devastated foetuses. In June 1962, a young biologist in Philadelphia, using tissue extracted from an aborted foetus from Sweden, produced safe, clean cells that allowed the creation of vaccines against rubella and other common childhood diseases. Two years later, in the midst of a devastating German measles epidemic, his colleague developed the vaccine that would one day wipe out homegrown rubella. The rubella vaccine and others made with those foetal cells have protected more than 150 million people in the United States, the vast majority of them preschool children. The new cells and the method of making them also led to vaccines that have protected billions of people around the world from polio, rabies, chicken pox, measles, hepatitis A, shingles and adenovirus. Meredith Wadman?s masterful account recovers not only the science of this urgent race, but also the political roadblocks that nearly stopped the scientists. She describes the terrible dilemmas of pregnant women exposed to German measles and recounts testing on infants, prisoners, orphans and the intellectually disabled, which was common in the era. These events take place at the dawn of the battle over using human foetal tissue in research, during the arrival of big commerce in campus labs, and as huge changes take place in the laws and practices governing who 'owns' research cells and the profits made from biological inventions. It is also the story of yet one more unrecognized woman whose cells have been used to save countless lives. With another frightening virus imperilling pregnant women on the rise today, no medical story could have more human drama, impact, or urgency today than The Vaccine Race.
520 _aMode of access: World Wide Web.
520 _a[electronic resource] /
690 _aMMR vaccine-Research-United States-History-20th century
690 _aRubella vaccines-Political aspects-United States-History-20th century
690 _aRubella-Vaccination-History-20th century
690 _aHuman experimentation in medicine-United States-History-20th century
690 _aHuman experimentation in medicine-Political aspects-United States-History-20th century
690 _aRubella vaccines-Research-United States-History-20th century
856 _uhttps://fe.bolindadigital.com/wldcs_bol_fo/b2i/productDetail.html?productId=RDH_416076&b2iSite=6348&preview=no
_y[Access eBook online]
999 _c59574
_d59574