Highlights from Remarks by Hildegund C.J. Ertl, M.D.,
Director, Wistar Institute Vaccine Center
Inauguration of the Wistar Institute Vaccine Center
May 31, 2007

“That is really the power of vaccines: They prevent disease, they prevent lifelong suffering due to residual diseases, and they prevent death. And all of that is done with minimal cost and fairly limited pain to the patient, and that is why I am fascinated by vaccines, and why I am as pleased as can be to head the Vaccine Center.”

“Approximately 50,000 humans die in India each year of rabies and most of them are children. And the reason is, the vaccine we have is to be given several times after someone is bitten. In remote areas, going to the doctor four times in a row is often not an option. So these children do not get the vaccine that they need, and they die. Our goal is to make a preventative vaccine that can become part of the child immunization program, that will protect these children. And we have a vaccine that looks very promising and is in the end stages of preclinical testing.”

“Another disease we are very interested in is influenza virus. We just received a $4 million grant from the state of Pennsylvania, and we also have additional funding from NIH…Our aim is to make a vaccine that is universal that will achieves universal protection against this virus, and not the strain-specific protection in the current vaccine.”