Emil von Behring researched treatments for the common childhood disease diphtheria in Germany in the 1890s and early 1900s. Diphtheria is a lethal disease that infected approximately 40,000 people in Germany between 1886 and 1888 with a general mortality rate of twenty-five percent. Behring investigated treatment of diphtheria using serum therapy, which is an alternative to vaccination that uses protective agents from other people’s blood to defend a patient against disease. Behring termed those protective agents antitoxins. He received the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on serum therapy, which was one of the first Nobel Prizes given in the field of immunology. Additionally, Behring researched active vaccination as another way to protect patients from diphtheria. Behring’s studies lowered the mortality rate of diphtheria in Germany through serum therapy and vaccination, especially since vaccination confers protection to both mother and infant during pregnancy and after birth.

Albert Ludwig Sigesmund Neisser was a physician and scientist working in Poland who, in 1879, identified the bacterium that causes gonorrhea. Before Neisser’s discovery, physicians and scientists were unsure of what causes gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted infection, or STI, that typically causes genital pain and discharge in those infected. Using newly available microscopy techniques, Neisser examined genital discharge from patients with gonorrhea and observed the bacteria that eventually became known as Neisseria gonorrhoeae, named in his honor. Beyond discovering the bacterial cause of gonorrhea, Neisser also directed a dermatology clinic in Breslau, Poland, and researched other diseases including syphilis and leprosy. In addition to his discoveries, he also experienced scandals and ethical controversies regarding his research practices, which resulted in the implementation of directives regarding informed consent. By identifying the causative agent of gonorrhea, Neisser enabled future physicians and scientists to develop treatments for a disease that can cause infertility and be passed from mother to child causing serious illness in infants.