Obituary Prof. Mikhail Petrovich Chumakov
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Obituary Prof. Mikhail Petrovich Chumakov
On June 11, 1993, Prof. M. P. Chumakov passed away in the 84th year of his life. Prof. Chumakov was an enthusiastic advocate of immunoprophylaxis as the main method to be used for protecting humans from viral infections. In collaboration with Prof. A. A. Smorodintsev, Prof. M. P. Chumakov developed the technology of the large-scale production of live oral poliovirus vaccine from attenuated Sabin strains, proved its safety for humans and demonstrated its high epidemiological effectiveness in mass immunizations of the population of large territories. His work laid the foundation for the concept of the eradication of poliomyelitis in the world. He also developed an inactivated tissue-culture tick-borne encephalitis vaccine and proved its efficacy. Prof. Chumakov worked in a group of Soviet virologists (L. D. Zilber, A. A. Smorodintsev, A.K. Shubladze, etc.) who isolated tick-borne encephalitis virus, studied the epidemiology of the disease and proposed measures aimed at the active and passive immunoprophylaxis of this disease. The name of Prof. Chnmakov is closely linked with the discovery of the causative agent of Crimean haemorrhagic fever and the description of foci of this infection on the territory of the former USSR and adjoining countries. He greatly contributed to the study of the aetiology, epidemiology and diagnosis of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. Finally, he developed a highly effective measles vaccine and proposed antigen-nonspecific methods for the prophylaxis of influenza and acute respiratory diseases in humans. Prof. Chumakov was elected a full member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, an honorary member of many academies and societies in Russia, in the CIS, in different countries of Europe and the Americas. He was awarded the highest prizes of the former USSR: the Lenin Prize, the State Prize, the Prize of the USSR Council of Ministers. He was also awarded the Ivanovsky Prize by the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, for outstanding work in the field of virology. In the 1950s Prof. Chumakov worked as the director of the Ivanovsky Institute of Virology (USSR Academy of Medical Sciences), and in 1955 he founded the Institute of Poliomyelitis and Viral Encephatitides (USSR Academy of Mediciat Sciences) which he headed for many years. He educated a whole army of scientists, and awarded the degrees of Candidates and Doctors of Medical Sciences; eight of them became Members of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Prof. Chumakov died when his research work on the development of new preparations for the prophylaxis of influenza was in full swing. In December 1992 his :fundamental article dealing with this problem was published in Zhurnal mikrobiologii, epidemiologii i immunobiotogii. It was his last work. Prof. B. F. Semenov, Moscow
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