Hattie Elizabeth AlexanderDied 24 Jun 1968 at age 67 (born 5 Apr 1901).American pediatrician and microbiologist whose groundbreaking work on influenzal meningitis significantly reduced infant death rates and advanced the field of microbiological genetics. She made a major contribution in her third published paper (1939), devising an anti-influenzal rabbit serum against H. influenzae type b, the causative organism of a then almost uniformly fatal meningitis in infants and children. Her antiserum reduced the mortality rate to 20 percent. When the advent of antibiotics made the antiserum obsolete, she quickly mastered their use against all the bacterial meningitides. Late in her career--the 1950s and 60s--she became a pioneer in microbial genetics. Over 30 years she published some 70 papers. |
