Vaccination-induced syphilis and the Hübner malpractice litigation.
This article examines smallpox vaccination in the 19th century as background for a notorious medical malpractice case that occupied Bavarian courts from April 1853 until May 1854. Dr. Georg Hübner, the defendant, was accused of having initiated a small epidemic of syphilis by using the lymph of a syphilitic infant to vaccinate 13 infants. The litigation and its published contemporaneous discussion demonstrate conflicts in the understanding of syphilis, the hazards of having to make a purely clinical diagnosis, the effect of obsolete legal wording in medical litigation, and the attitude of leading physicians to a guilty colleague. This case ultimately led to efforts to make arm-to-arm smallpox vaccination safer, and by 1898 to abandon the technique in favor of bovine sources that were sterilized and stabilized by various methods.
Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15217, USA. benedek@pitt.edu
Thomas G
TG
Benedek
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002648:Child; D003951:Diagnostic Errors / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008196:Lymph / Q000382:microbiology; D008297:Male; D008318:Malpractice / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D012899:Smallpox / Q000517:prevention & control; D012900:Smallpox Vaccine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects*; D013587:Syphilis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000635:transmission*; D014611:Vaccination / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000379:methods; D055815:Young Adult
D012900:Smallpox Vaccine