PIONEERED THE TREATMENT OF LEPROSY

RM

Notorious for its disfiguring effects, leprosy is an infection that has long been associated with social stigma, those afflicted often being forced to live in squalid ‘colonies’. Caused by two similar species of bacteria, it’s now completely curable using antibiotics. But before the 1940s, the only hope lay with an oil from the seeds of the chaulmoogra tree found in Asia and Africa. While the oil could be effective (we now know it has antimicrobial properties), it was difficult to administer. Its acrid taste often made patients throw up, and if it was injected under the skin, it formed burning blisters instead of being absorbed into the body.

In 1915, a young African-American chemist took up the challenge. Born in Seattle in 1892, Alice Ball was already recognised as a gifted research chemist at the College (now University) of Hawaii, becoming the first woman and first African-American to earn a graduate degree there. She quickly found a way of making the oil less viscous and more soluble in water, and thus suitable for injection.

By 1918, Ball’s breakthrough was allowing people with leprosy to recover and return to their families. Tragically, however, she never lived to see the success of her work: in 1916 she died, possibly after mistakenly inhaling chlorine gas during a class demonstration. Another chemist continued Ball’s work without crediting her, denying her recognition for decade.