Title:

Letter from Wilbur A. Sawyer to Margaret Sawyer

Creator:

Sawyer, Wilbur A.

Recipient:

Sawyer, Margaret

Date:

24 March 1942

Description:

Early in 1942, the Surgeon General's Office began getting reports of infectious hepatitis among troops stationed in the western U.S. Because the yellow fever vaccine developed by the Rockefeller laboratory in 1937 (using human blood serum) had sporadically produced such problems, and because the International Health Division had been producing all of the yellow fever vaccine administered to American troops, Dr. Sawyer and Dr. Bauer went to investigate immediately. In this letter, Sawyer was still optimistic that the hepatitis cases were not vaccine related. After several months of exhaustive study, however, it became clear that several lots of the vaccine had been contaminated, making for a very awkward episode for Sawyer and the Rockefeller Foundation.. A 200 page report of the study was published in the American Journal of Hygiene, Volumes 39-40, in 1944.

Location:

Box: 2. Folder: 17

Rights:

Public Domain

Genre:

Letters (correspondence)

Subject:

Yellow Fever Vaccine

Format:

Text

Extent:

4 pages

Language:

English

Legacy ID:

LWBBMK

NLM ID:

101584931X197

Profiles Collection:

The Wilbur A. Sawyer Papers

Shareable Link:

https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584931X197

Story Section:

Controlling Disease during World War II, 1939-1944