Life Savers

The Lasker Awards in public health were set up only last year by former Chicago Adman Albert D. Lasker and his wife Mary. Already they are regarded as a top honor in U.S. medicine. Awarded annually by the American Public Health Association, the prizes are intended to stimulate efforts for mass lifesaving. They are given to medical scientists or administrators who have contributed most toward fighting the major fatal diseases. Individual winners get $1,000 and a gold statuette of the Winged Victory--a kind of medical Oscar.

The 1947 winners, announced last week: Dr. Thomas Parran, 55, Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service (a special award of $2,500); for "outstanding contributions to the national health" (notably his campaign against venereal disease), and for leadership in establishing U.N.'s World Health Organization.

Dr. Oswald Theodore Avery, 70-year-old bacteriologist at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research; for his 30-year study of pneumonia germs (pneumococci) which has helped reduce U.S. pneumonia deaths from 112,821 in 1917 to 58,000 in 1946.

Dr. Thomas Francis Jr., 47, of the University of Michigan, who isolated influenza virus B and helped develop a vaccine against the disease, for leadership in the worldwide fight against flu.

Dr. Homer Smith, 52, of New York University, famed physiologist and explorer (Africa, Malaya), whose work has been based largely on studies of osmosis in fish; for fundamental discoveries about the connection between kidney disorders and heart disease.

Dr. Alice Hamilton, 78, longtime industrial health expert in the U.S. Department of Labor (now retired); for her lifelong crusade to protect U.S. workers against industrial poisoning hazards (silicosis, carbon monoxide, etc.).

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