Bela Schick life and biography

Béla Schick conducted important studies on allergic reactions, nutrition for infants, scarlet fever, and tuberculosis, but he is best known for introducing a quick, reliable test for diphtheria. A serious contagious disease of the throat, diphtheria causes difficulty in breathing, and can cause death by asphyxiation.

Young children are especially susceptible, and the disease was responsible for tens of thousands of infant deaths annually before introduction of Schick's test, which allowed vaccinations for those deemed susceptible to the disease. Schick was a leader in the public call for widespread vaccination, which has reduced diphtheria to a rare disease in western societies.

Though his own marriage was childless, Schick authored a popular and progressive guide to raising children, Child Care Today, in which he advised against corporal punishment decades before such advice was commonplace. He founded the American Academy of Pediatrics, but generally eschewed publicity and spent as much time as possible with children on the ward and in his medical practice.

Author of books:
-Child Care Today (1932)
-The Care of Your Child from Infancy to Six (1949)
-Serum Sickness (1951)

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