Today is the 94th birth anniversary of Dr Michiaki Takahashi, a celebrated Japanese Virologist, who successfully developed the Chicken Pox vaccine, which has been administered to millions of children worldwide to prevent severe cases of chicken pox in them. Google too has come out with a Doodle in honour of Dr Takahashi today and so I decided to have a bit a of look-in, in the life of the person who tamed the dangerous, Chicken Pox causing Varicella virus.
Born in Osaka, Japan on this day in 1928, Dr Takahashi completed his MD from Osaka University’s Medical School in 1954. He further studied and researched on poxvirus Virology before accepting a Reserach Fellowship from Baylor College, Texas and moved to the United States in 1963. It is here that the quest for vaccine began for Dr Takahashi .
In 1964, his 3 year old son fell ill to a severe bout of Chicken Pox. It was not easy for a parent to see his son struggle against the virus. The severity of the disease and the agony and pain associated with it, motivated Dr Takahashi to work towards a solution to the problem and develop a vaccine to combat the highly transmissible disease. After a long hard struggle spanning almost a decade, Dr Takahashi was successful in developing a vaccine against the Varicella Virus and it was ready for clinical trials by 1974. After undergoing rigorous examination and extensive trials, the vaccine was found to be extremely effective and in 1986 its commercial rollout started in Japan after the approval from WHO. The world has benefitted from the vaccine and there is no doubt that the efforts of Dr Takahashi has served mankind no end.
Interestingly Tatsuro Kiuchi, the Japanese Artist who developed the Doodle for Google was not aware of Dr Takahashi when Google approached him. However, the design which he eventually developed is truly captivating. The ‘G’ in the Google depicts Dr Takahashi researching on the vaccine. The next letter ‘O’ is indicative of an infected child. The following ‘O’ and ‘G’ depict the Doctor bandaging the child after administering the vaccine. The ‘L’ then indicates a downward curve capturing the reducing number of cases of Chicken Pox and the final letter ‘E’ indicates two vials of vaccine kept on a shelf.
Dr Takahashi died in 2013 in Japan aged 85 and left behind his work and legacy which has added value to human life. This is how a life should be on which a perfect Obituary can be written. Let’s strive to bring some value addition in the lives of people around us by whatever we can do. It’s our responsibility as human beings and let us not dither from it.
Three Cheers for Dr Takahashi.