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THIS WEEK'S HONORARY UNSUBSCRIBE goes to Maurice R. Hilleman. A
microbiologist, Hilleman was particularly interested in preventing
disease. He developed vaccines for chickenpox, encephalitis,
Haemophilus influenzae (a brain-damaging flu), hepatitis A,
hepatitis B, measles, meningitis, mumps, pneumonia, rubella
(German measles), and more -- about 40 in all. He also figured out
how to combine various vaccines so they could be given together,
most notably the MMR (for measles, mumps and rubella), and
discovered that viruses can "drift" or "shift" (mutate), which
helped to produce more effective flu vaccines. He has saved more
lives than any other human who has ever lived through his work,
and he laid the foundation for much of the preventative medicine
practiced today. "The scientific quality and quantity of what
he did was amazing," says Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "Just one
of his accomplishments would be enough to have made for a great
scientific career." Hilleman was presented the National Medal of
Science, the nation's highest scientific honor, by President
Ronald Reagan in 1988.

Dr. Hilleman died April 11 in Philadelphia from cancer. He was 85.

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