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Comment: While you're waiting for the review, please fix the red errors in references #14 and #15. Also, there's a caption right above the "Later Life" section that looks out of place. GoingBatty (talk) 01:14, 1 October 2024 (UTC)
Julius Bernard Citron | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | October 26, 1878 Berlin, Prussia |
| Died | January 18, 1952 (aged 73) Cairo, Egypt |
| Resting place | Bassatine Jewish Cemetery |
| Known for | Wassermann Test |
| Spouse | Lilli Alice Schayer (1893 - 1932) (m. 1919; 3 children) |
| Children | Ralph, Herbert and Evelyn Citron |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Bacteriology, Immunology, Serology and Internal Medicine |
| Signature | |
 | |
Julius Bernhard Citron (October 26, 1878 – January 18, 1952) was an early German Jewish researcher in bacteriology, immunology, and serology, specialties devoted to the prevention of infectious disease. Best known for his contribution to the development of the Wassermann serodiagnostic test for syphilis, he was a clinical physician; during the First World War, a German Army field doctor; a Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Berlin; the Chief of the Charite Hospital’s Bacteriological-Serological Scientific Laboratory and later the Physician in Chief for its 2nd Medical Clinic. He ended his career as the Physician-in-Chief at Cairo’s Jewish Hospital, L'Hopital Israelite du Cairo. He wrote early medical textbooks in bacteriology and immunology and dozens of research papers published in leading medical journals. Proficient in five languages, German, English, French, Hebrew, and Arabic, he cared for patients in each.
An American colleague wrote in 1910 about Citron that "he is a genial, earnest worker and a delightful gentleman, thoroughly interested in his work, an excellent teacher and in all probability one of the best laboratory men on the [European] Continent," a testament to Citron’s international reputation from a young age.[1] Citron, though, should be known as more than one of the best laboratory men. Citron laid the groundwork for integrating the laboratory sciences with clinical practice.
In the emerging field of serology, Citron developed the world’s first clinically viable serodiagnostic test for disease, a test and that would shape the field for decades. For his test, he pioneered the use of human antibodies, sampled from a broad range of stratified human medical data strictly controlled for sample variability. He used this method rather than the then prevalent use of small numbers of ad hoc samples of blood sera from animals to test for antigens as a marker for animal disease. Citron anticipated modern statistical methods to verify positive diagnostic results and using his method, developed the first clinically viable test to diagnose syphilis. His test would remain in use for over fifty years and would be popularly known either as the "Wassermann Test", or the "Wassermann Reaction". He also developed the first clinically viable blood test to diagnose tuberculosis.
August von Wassermann, Albert Neisser, and Carl Bruck are frequently cited as the developers of the Wassermann test.[2] They were the first to attempt a diagnostic test for syphilis. Their method involved using blood sera from small numbers of syphilitic monkeys to test for the presence of antigens. Their method yielded low true positive results of about 20%, too low to be of clinical value. Recognizing their results' shortcomings, Wassermann assigned Citron to develop a method. Citron’s method achieved verifiably true positive results in humans of about 80%.
The important and immediate impact of Citron's contribution was the rapid and widespread adoption of his test for clinical use. With the adoption of Citron's test, clinicians worldwide changed the treatment protocol for patients who test positive for syphilis. With a positive test result, clinicians would initiate the treatment of their patients with mercury even in the absence of symptoms and would continue the treatment until their patients tested negative. This is important because syphilis often does not manifest symptoms.
Citron would also be known for the breadth of his research. He was a leading authority for syphilis, and he made contributions to the understanding of the disease processes for gonorrhea, tuberculosis, typhus, meningitis, cholera, tetanus, and the swine flu among other infectious diseases. He studied the treatment of diabetes using insulin within a couple of years of insulin's discovery in the US, when in Germany there were only a handful of vials of experimental insulin and only a couple of researchers. He pioneered research in the relationship of oral health to endocrine and metabolic disorders, and he contributed to the study of the pathogenesis of various tumors. His research was published in leading medical journals, and he wrote very early textbooks in bacteriology and immunology for students and practitioners that were revised through four editions, were translated into multiple languages and were used internationally for several decades. As a Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Berlin for over two decades, he taught hundreds of medical students until the Nazi era.
Citron died and was buried in the Bassatine Jewish Cemetery of Cairo, Egypt.
- ^ Eisner, Henry L. (December 10, 1910). "The New Treatment of Syphilis (Erlich – Hata)". Journal of American Medical Association: 2053.
- ^ Bialynicki-Birula, Rafal (2008). "The 100th Anniversary of Wassermann-Neisser-Bruck Reaction". Clinics in Dermatology. 26 (1): 79–88. doi:10.1016/j.clindermatol.2007.09.020. PMID 18280907.