Ehrlich and Hata, Discoverers of Syphilis Cure

Portrait of Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915) and Sahachiro Hata (1873-1938), the bacteriologists from Germany and Japan respectively who discovered the first cure for syphilis. From 1896 Ehrlich (left) tried to find a chemical that combatted the Trypanosome parasites that caused sleeping sickness. By 1907 he tried his 606th compound, dihydoxydiamino-arsenobenzene, but found it ineffective. In 1909 Hata, a new student of Ehrlich's, was practicing in the use of arsenic compounds when he found that compound 606 was effective against the syphilis bacillus Treponema pallidum. Ehrlich, who had tried over 900 chemicals, named compound 606 salvarsan (now called arsphenamine)

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Bacteriologist Chemotherapy Ehrlich Haematologist Hata Hematologist Immunologist Physiology

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