Tuberculomucin (Tbm) was developed by a Czech physician, Dr Friedrich (Fritz) Weleminsky c.1912, and brought to London when the family escaped from Prague in 1939. Medical Historian, Carole Reeves, has researched Tbm and Judy Weleminsky, a granddaughter of Dr Friedrich, is working with microbiologists at University College London, to manufacture this 'forgotten treatment'. If you have any information about Tbm or received it during the 1940s please contact Carole Reeves: c.reeves@ucl.ac.uk
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
Friedrich (Fritz) Weleminsky creates Tuberculomucin
Dr Friedrich (Fritz) Weleminsky (1868-1945) was a lecturer in Hygiene (now called Microbiology) at the German University, Prague, when he invented Tuberculomucin (Tbm). At the time there was no cure for tuberculosis which, in Britain, killed one person in eight, most of whom were young adults. Experience with tuberculin, invented in 1890 by a German bacteriologist, Robert Koch (1843-1910) had proved disappointing so Fritz Weleminsky worked hard to produce a more effective treatment. Many doctors in Czechoslovakia, Austria and Germany used Tbm successfully but there is no evidence for its use anywhere else, and Dr Weleminsky's scientific papers were not translated from the German.