Rudolf Weigl

Rudolf Weigl

Rudolf Weigl (1883 - 1957) Famous Polish biologist, who invented the first effective vaccine against epidemic typhus. He founded the Weigl Institue in Lviv (now in Ukraine), where he carried out most of his research. When the Nazis occupied Poland during World War II, they were impressed by his research and asked him to make typhus vaccines for them. Some of the vaccines were smuggled into concentration camps and thus helped to protect the inmates from typhus, which was a major problem during WW II. Though Weigl developed the vaccine quite early, he hesitated to use it on a wide scale because he was not a doctor of medicine, and considered that much experimental studies had to be done before introducing it on a mass scale. His typhus vaccination was first widely used in China by Belgian christian missionaries, which bought him wide fame. Weigl gave shelter and helped many underground Polish intellectuals during the Nazi occupation.