Amid all the seasonal jollity an important passing was probably missed by most people. The death of Michiaki Takahashi, aged 85, was noted the other day.
We forget that before his vaccine was licensed in 1995, almost everyone came down with the disease by the time they left childhood. In the USA, there were 4 million cases each year, 11,000 ended up in hospital and between 100 and 150 died.
The vaccine is still the only one successful against any of the human herpes viruses.
Dr Takahashi was motivated to develop the vaccine after his son came down with the disease.
Another discoverer to whom we owe a debt of gratitude.
