Béla Schick
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{{Infobox_Scientist
| name = Béla Schick
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1877|7|16|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[Balatonboglár|Balatonboglár]], [[Hungary]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1967|12|6|1877|7|16|mf=y}}
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| field = [[Pediatrics]]
| work_institution = [[Mount Sinai Hospital, New York|Mount Sinai Hospital]]<br>[[Columbia University]]<br>[[Beth-El Hospital]]
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| known_for = [[Schick test]]
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'''Béla Schick''' ([[July 16]], [[1877]] - [[December 6]], [[1967]]), was a [[Hungary|Hungarian]]-born [[United States|American]] [[pediatrician]]. He is the founder of the [[Schick test]]. Was born in [[Balatonboglár|Balatonboglár]], [[Hungary]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balatonbogl%C3%A1r], and brought up in [[Graz, Austria]][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graz], where he attended medical school. In 1902 he joined the Medicine Faculty of the [[University of Vienna]]
where he remained until 1923. Studying problems of immunity, he and a colleague first coined the term '[[allergy]]' as a clinical entity. His discovery of a test for susceptibility
to diphtheria (“the Schick test”)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schick_test] made him world famous. From 1923 he directed the Pediatric Department of [[Mount Sinai Hospital, New York|Mount Sinai Hospital]], [[New York]]. From 1936 he was also professor at [[Columbia University]]. From 1950 to 1962 Schick headed the Pediatric Department of [[Beth-El Hospital]], [[Brooklyn]], NY.
His later interests included the nutrition of the newborn and feeding problems in children.
Young Bela Schick quoted the [[Talmud]][http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/talmud.htm]: "The world is kept alive by the breath of children," to help persuade his father to allow him to pursue continued education in pediatrics,
rather than to join the family grain merchant business in Graz, Austria. Schick became assistant at the Children's Clinic in Vienna, and later associate professor of pediatrics
at Vienna University.
He emigrated to the United States, and in 1923 became pediatrician-in-chief at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital. He later (1936) was appointed clinical professor of pediatrics
at [[Columbia University]]. Schick made important studies on [[scarlet fever]], [[tuberculosis]], and the nutrition for infants ... but gained international renown for the Schick Test. This
test determined susceptibility to [[diphtheria]], and eventually led to the eradication of the childhood disease that attacked 100,000 Americans in 1927, leading to about 10,000 deaths.
A massive five-year campaign, coordinated by Dr. Schick, virtually eliminated the dreaded disease that had taken countless young lives since it was first mentioned in the sixth
century writings of [[Aetius]]. As a part of the campaign, 85 million pieces of literature were distributed by [[Metropolitan Life Insurance Company]]. with an appeal to parents to "Save your child
from diphtheria." These illustrated brochures (reproduced here) were created by a talented young artist who had recently emigrated from Germany - Gerta Ries. Remarkably, this
same Gerta Ries (Wiener) was commissioned over 75 years later to create the sculptured tribute to Dr. Béla Schick for the [[Jewish-American Hall of Fame]].
== External links ==
*[http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0843931.html]
*[http://www.amuseum.org/jahf/virtour/page18.html]
*[http://www.discoveriesinmedicine.com/Ra-Thy/Schick-Test.html The Schick Test]
[[Category:Hungarian Jews|Schick, Béla]]
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