Sadly, BBC News reports today that Eunice Bowman has died at the remarkable age of 111 and just one month shy of her 112th birthday, thus making her the oldest person to have lived in the UK. She was born in 1898, the second of 12 children, and therefore saw the start of two new centuries.
She put her long life down to not smoking – of which Sir Henry S. Wellcome, the founder of the Trust, would have much approved – but what catches my eye about the short summary of her life was the death of her first husband in 1928 from tuberculosis.
TB has shared a long history with humanity, with the oldest known indication of the bacterial infection occurring in human remains from 9,000 years ago. Even today, approximately 9 million people around the globe are infected with TB and of those about 2 million die every year. This occurs in spite of the BCG vaccine being given routinely to many children around the world, including in low- and middle- income countries.
Last year our Technology Transfer funding supported the first clinical trials of a new vaccine, MVA85A, designed to boost the effect of the BCG injection and you can watch a film from about that here. However, the purpose of this post is the slide show above which shows some historical imagery for you, including a portrait of Albert Calmette who – along with Camille Guérin – was the developer of the ‘Bacillus of Calmette and Guérin’ vaccine. The imagery spans the period 1888 to 1934, thus encompassing the early days of Eunice’s life.
Image credits: Wellcome Images
Filed under: Development, Ageing and Chronic Disease, Infectious Disease, Technology Transfer, Wellcome Images Tagged: Albert Calmette, BCG vaccine, Camille Guérin, MVA85A vaccine, TB, Tuberculosis, Vaccination Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
