Fifty years of dysentery research at the Pécs university

Károly Rauss was appointed as head of the Department of Public Health of the Elisabeth University of Pécs in 1946. Professor Rauss's carrier had started working with Professor Hugó Preisz in Budapest. During his residency years he was already appointed to the Department of Bacteriology chaired by Lovrekovics at the National Institute of Public Health. In this institution - as in all organizations affiliated with the Rockefeller Institute -the state of art diagnostic work together with research focusing on problems derived from everyday medical and public health practice was considered as to be of primary importance. Stimulated by this scientific environment Rauss's interest turned towards enteric pathogens. In cooperation with Lovrekovics he developed a typhoid vaccine containing a trichloracetic acid extract of the pathogen adsorbed to aluminum hydroxide. This vaccine was introduced in 1938 when ca. 6-8000 enteric fever cases were registered in Hungary annually. The vaccination, supported by the public health work concerning carriers, eventually lead to the eradication of the disease in Hungary.