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Helénè Sparrow, (5 June 1891 - 13 November 1970) was a pioneer in world public health, a French doctor and microbiologist. She was noted for her work initially to control typhus and then in the use of vaccination against diphtheria, scarlet fever, spotted fever and relapsing fever.

Early life
Sparrow was born in Bohuslav in the province of Kiev (Russia at that time) on 5 June 1891. Her mother was the daughter of Witwold Stefanski and her father, Leopold Sparrow was a magistrate. She was educated at the Faculty of Medicine in Kiev, qualifying as a medical doctor in 1915. She obtained a second degree in medicine from University of Poznan in 1923. She obtained her doctorate in 1928 from the University of Warsaw.

Academic career
After qualifying in medicine in 1915 she undertook became involved in measures against epidemic disease within the Russian army during the First World War. Once fighting ended, she began working in clinics in Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia), supervised by Professor Bylina, soon moving to the Institute of Bacteriology in Kiev as assistant to W. Linderman. She began to work on epidemic typhus with A. Kronotowski and L. Polev. In 1920 she went to Warsaw as first an assistant in the bacteriological analysis service and then Head of Laboratory and the Vaccination Service at the Institute of State Health. This included vaccination campaigns and also investigation of cholera outbreaks. Between 1921 - 1933 she worked with Rudolph Weigl at the University of Lwów on epidemic typhus. During this time she was involved in setting up four public health laboratories in eastern Poland to benefit people relocated following national boundary changes. She also obtained a second medical degree from University of Poznan in 1923. A grant from the League of Nations took her to the beginning of her life-long involvement with the Institute Pasteur in France. She studied tuberculosis with Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin in Lille, with Jules Bordet in Brussels and also with Amédée Borrel at the Institute of Health in Strasbourg. In 1924 she was again sent to France for training in microbiology at Institute Pasteur and in the laboratory of Alexandre Besredka. In 1925, the Institute Pasteur financed her research with Charles Nicolle into epidemic typhus in Tunisia. She also organised a mass vaccination programme against scarlet fever in Warsaw and other regions of Poland, supported by R Debré.

She obtained her first tenured academic post in 1928, as associate professor at the University of Warsaw and was subsequently the Professor of Bacteriology. Between 1930 and 1933 she organised the Polish vaccination programme against diphtheria as well as managing microbiology training and active participation in medical societies in Poland and the Warsaw branch of the Société of Biologie. In 1931, she was sent by the government to study epidemic typhus in Mexico and Guatemala along with Charles Nicholle. In 1933 she went with Nicolle to join the Institut Pasteur in Tunis as laboratory chief and introduced the Weigl approach for vaccine production. . From 1935 she worked on a murine virus as a potential basis of antityphoid vaccine and in 1940 she and Paul Durand developed the Durand-Sparrow antityphoid vaccine. She also worked to culture the agent of spotted fever as a prelude to a vaccine against Rocky Mountain spotted fever. During the Second World War she hosted French refugees (including André Gide) and Polish deserters. She was allowed to continue working at the Institute Pasteur beyond the compulsory retirement age and from 1949 was the Head of the BCG service. From 1958 she was in charge of work on relapsing fever in Ethiopia for the World Health Organisation.

Article: Profesor Hélène Sparrow-Germa, M.D. (1891-1970). A pioneer in world health. L Anigstein Polish medical science and history bulletin 08/1971; 14(3):100-1.

Personal life
She married Baron R. von Kuegelgen in 1917, a surgeon in the Russian army. She married In 1943 she married Ph Germa, an agriculturalist. They planted an orangery together in Soukra, near Tunis. During the final French withdrawal, the couple left Tunisia to retire to Corsica. She died at Pietranera in Corsica in 1970.

Awards and Honours
Head of Laboratory and Preventive Vaccination Service, Institute of State Health, Warsaw 1920 Head of Laboratory, Institute Pasteur, Tunis 1933 Head of the BCG service, Institut Pasteur, Tunis 1945 - 1960 Elected member of the Société de Pathologie Exotique (French Society of Exotic Pathology) 1945