The vaccine that changed the world: the story of Dr. Michiaki Takahashi

Introduction: Who is Dr. Michiaki Takahashi?

Dr. Michiaki Takahashi is a virologist and inventor of the chickenpox vaccine.

 Dr. Michiaki Takahashi is a virologist and inventor of the chickenpox vaccine. He was born in Japan in 1922, but grew up in India, where his father was a professor at Calcutta University.

 He studied medicine at the University of Tokyo, graduating in 1948, and then began working as an assistant professor at the Nagasaki Medical College. In 1952 he became an associate professor there, and in 1957 he became a full professor.

Today Google celebrates the birth of this researcher

The popular search engine celebrates the birth of this researcher, who developed the vaccine for a disease that, thanks to his creation, is already a problem of the past.

The chicken pox vaccine

This virus, although it rarely causes death, was a complication before the creation of the immunizer: children and adults (to a lesser extent) woke up with bumps, blisters and scabs, with no more protection against the disease than isolation, which was usually enough, but after days of complications from virus symptoms.

One of these children was Teruyuki, the son of Dr. Takahashi, who contracted chickenpox in 1964 when he and his family moved to Houston, Texas, where Michiaki worked at Baylor Medical College. The scientist's son became seriously ill, as the distinguished doctor reminded the Financial Times today: “He developed a rash on the skin of the face that quickly spread to the rest of the body. The symptoms progressed rapidly, and his situation became very serious.”

"The fever increased in an extraordinary way and he began to breathe with difficulty," recalled the Japanese doctor. “He was in a terrible situation, and my wife and I could only stare at him in awe day and night. We couldn't sleep. He seemed so ill that I remember the bitter experience as if he were reliving it."

Excitement for his sick son (who was eventually cured) inspired him to try a chickenpox vaccine. Returning to his native Japan in 1965, he began research to develop the immunizer, to be called Varivax.

It is a vaccine that works with live attenuated viruses, without giving clinical symptoms and ensuring protection against chickenpox. By 1972 clinical trials were already underway, and soon after Japan and other countries had begun to vaccinate with the compound created by Takahashi.

In Argentina, for example, the varicella vaccine was included in the National Vaccination Calendar in July 2015, in a single dose schedule (to be applied at 15 months of age). Since December of this year, and following the example of countries like the United States, the national Ministry of Health has determined that five-year-olds should receive a second dose of the vaccine.

The application of Varivax throughout the world made chickenpox a medical problem of the past, since pediatric vaccination, if it does not offer complete protection against chickenpox as it does in most cases, the symptoms of the disease are milder, much milder than they were for Teruyuki, the son of Dr. Takahashi, who inspired the creation of the chicken pox vaccine.