The Hib vaccine

Haemophilus influenzae type b was the leading cause of bacterial meningitis in small children, and it killed or brain-damaged them by the hundred thousand a year. The trouble was that infants do not respond to the sugar coat that makes the bacterium dangerous. John Robbins and Rachel Schneerson solved it by chemically linking that sugar to a protein the infant immune system does recognise — the conjugate vaccine. Since its introduction Hib disease has all but disappeared wherever the vaccine is given, and the same conjugate principle now protects children against pneumococcus and meningococcus.

Part of “The Gifts of the Jews” — verified Jewish contributions to the world, with sources.