A medical scientist forgotten from the public view

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Medical students know a deal about microscopists and scientists Robert Koch (who discovered TB bacillus), Rudolf Virchow (who gave us number of terms in pathology) , and Louis Pasteur (a pioneer in development of fermentation, preservation and vaccines). There may be a number of forgotten scientists, but one I stumbled on recently through a postage stamp is Hideyo Noguchi. Born in Japan in 1876, he died in Ghana in 1928, and worked to unravel diverse tropical conditions, including snake venom, leptospirosis, yellow fever, trachoma and syphillis. Lets briefly explore life and journey of this forgotten scientist.

A childhood disability and medical education

Hideyo was born as Seisaku. His father was a postman and mother a rice-farmer. As a toddler, a pot of simmering rice, burned and scarred his face and left arm. However, he was academically bright, and a school inspector helped him partially correct his deformity. Inspired by Dr Wantable, surgeon who operated upon him, Seisaku entered medical school, and completed his initial studies in 1897. The next year, he changed his name to Hideyo, after he read a novel that had a character named Seisaku. Protagonist in this novel was intelligent but lazy, and managed to ruin his life, characteristics Hideyo did not want to identify himself with.

Hideyo moves to US, and becomes a scientist

In 1899, Simon Flexner was on a visit to Tokyo, and Hideyo was an apprentice who knew a little English, better than others. In later years, Flexner became his mentor, and helped Hideyo secure fellowships in US and Denmark. He studied snake venoms when he was in Denmark, and also produced a first anti-snake-venom. In 1909 Flexner became director of Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research (RIMR) and recalled Hideyo as a key researcher. In 1913, Hideyo isolated Treponema palladium (an organism that causes syphillis) from Brain. This finding gave a conclusive evidence that Syphillis directly causes neurological manifestations. Around the same time, Hideyo developed skin tests for diagnosis of Syphillis. Experiments that led to these tests, became controversial, due to potential risk of disease transmission.

Yellow fever research that proved fatal

Malaria, Yellow fever, and Leptospira – all cause fever and jaundice. In early days, yellow fever was confused with malaria. In 1918 Hideyo reported that some patients with yellow fever had Leptospira icteroides in their blood sample. His emphatic discovery was proved wrong in 1927. Probably it was a different organism – maybe a virus. The same year Hideyo travelled to Ghana, to better understand yellow fever. In course of his animal experiments at British Medical Research Institute (BMRI) in Accra, in Ghana, he was able to inoculate yellow fever in chimpanzees through infected mosquitoes. In 1928, he himself got infected by yellow fever, that had originated in his own lab. He died on 21st May 1928. Seven days later, Dr. William Alexander Young, director of the BMRI also died of yellow fever.

Epilogue

Hideyo was nominated for Nobel Prize many a times, but never awarded. His most famous contribution is his identification of the causative agent of syphilis (the bacteria Treponema pallidum) in the brain and use of anti-snake venoms. Hideyo Noguchi is well remembered in Japan and Ghana. Japan has issued a postage stamps (1949, 2013) and a Bank Note (2004) in his honour. Ghana issued a postage stamp-set to honour him in 1997. Yet, he remains forgotten in many other parts of the world.