Waldemar Haffkine

Sir Waldemar Mordechai Wolff Haffkine was a Ukrainian protozoologist and bacteriologist. Born to a Russian schoolmaster, Haffkine was interested in zoology in his formative years and was mentored by the famous immunologist Ilya Mechkinov. He emigrated to Switzerland and then to Paris to work as a librarian in the then newly established Pasteur institute. Before shifting his attention to practical bacteriology, he continued his work on protists like Paramecium. and Euglena . He contributed towards the identification of three species of Holospora, an intracellular parasite that can only reside in the nuclei of Paramecium. The Euglenid genus Khawkinea is named in his honor.

Haffkine then went on to develop an anti-cholera vaccine at a time when cholera was considered a pandemic and was ravaging Europe and Asia. He produced an attenuated form of the bacterium, Vibrio cholerae by exposing it to hot blasts of air. After successful animal trials, he inoculated himself to test its efficacy. This vaccine wasn’t widely accepted at first and was even criticized by Mechkinov and Pasteur. During the Indian cholera epidemic of 1893, which killed more than 20 million Indians, he traveled to Calcutta to test his vaccine, and saved countless lives. His anti-cholera vaccine is one of the first ones to actually work.

In 1896, an epidemic of bubonic plague broke out in Bombay, and Haffkine was asked to help out on an emergency basis. He worked at a break-neck pace and produced a vaccine within three months and he inoculated himself with 10cc of the preparation before testing it on volunteers from the Byculla jail. His vaccine wasn’t fully effective and only reduced the risk by 50% and had bad side-effects, but helped stop the spread of the disease and saved many lives.

The plague laboratory in Mumbai was renamed the ‘Haffkine Institute’ in 1925. Even though he won many awards and honors, he remains a savior mankind never knew about.