Question

Who received the Nobel Prize in 1951 for the development of a vaccine for yellow fever?
A. Max Theiler
B. Ronald Ross
C. Max Delbruck
D. Francis Peyton Rous

Answer 1

In 1930 Theiler joined the laboratories at the Rockefeller Foundation’s International Health Division in New York City, where he continued his research on infectious diseases, including yellow fever. In 1928 he discovered that rhesus monkeys were effective against the virus because of yellow fever, researchers began to develop vaccines against the disease.

Complete Answer:
- Yellow fever is a serious disease caused by a virus that is spread through the bite of an infected mosquito. Yellow fever can cause fever and flu-like illness, jaundice (yellowing of the eyes and skin), liver failure, respiratory failure, kidney failure, vomiting of blood, and possibly death.
- The yellow fever vaccine is utilized to prevent this disease in adults and 9 years old children. This vaccine functions by exhibiting the infected individual with a small dose of the virus, which causes the body to develop immunity to the disease. This vaccine will not treat an active infection that has already developed in the body.

Now, let us find the solution from the option.
- Max Theiler is a virologist (South African American base) who got the Nobel Prize for developing a vaccine against yellow fever prize in the field of medicine or physiology.
- Sir Ronald Ross was a British doctor, who received the nobel prize for physiology or medicine in 1902 for his work on the transmission of malaria.
- Max Delbruck has often been called the father of molecular biology.
- Francis Peyton Rous got the Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering that viruses are one of the causes of cancer.

Thus, the correct option is A. i.e. Max Theiler.

Note: Max Theiler discovered that the common mouse is also susceptible to the yellow fever virus, a finding that facilitated the vaccine research. In the late 1930s Theiler developed the first weak strain of the virus. Later research led to the formation of the developed 17D strain that became mostly utilized for humans to get vaccinated against yellow fever.