Two physicians based in Liverpool, England, Cyril Clarke, MD, and Ronald Finn, MD, were independently pursuing the same goal. Gorman set out to cure Rh disease together with a Columbia obstetrician, Vincent Freda, MD, and William Pollack, PhD, chief research scientist at the Ortho Pharmaceuticals lab. Roughly 15 percent of American women have Rh-negative blood, so the problem facing obstetrics and gynecology is immense. Once a woman is sensitized, her antibodies can cross the placenta to destroy the red blood cells of her fetus, which can lead to miscarriage, brain damage, or the newborn’s death. But each subsequent Rh-positive fetus increases the odds the mother will become “sensitized” to the fetus. It takes some time to produce such antibodies, so the first Rh-positive child is typically spared. In these cases, when fetal red blood cells cross into the mother’s circulation-usually at delivery-the mother’s body begins producing antibodies that can attack and kill a fetus’ red blood cells. Rh disease can develop when a woman with Rh-negative blood is pregnant with an Rh-positive fetus. Rh disease poses risk to many pregnancies Plus, there’s peace of mind for Rh-negative mothers. There have been no fatalities in 50 years, and it saves $1 billion every year by preventing high-risk Rh pregnancies. “It’s the most cost-effective drug ever produced. “I still marvel at how a low-tech solution could have such impact,” said John Gorman, MD, former director of the blood bank at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center and co-creator of RhoGAM, to the audience gathered for a panel discussion to celebrate his vaccine. 5, Columbia researchers and physicians, along with guests from around the world, gathered at VP&S to celebrate RhoGAM's 50th anniversary. In the United States, it killed approximately 10,000 newborns a year and caused brain damage in many more.Īlthough the factors that cause Rh disease are still present, the disease is almost completely prevented by RhoGAM, a vaccine developed in the 1960s by physicians at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and still used today. But for centuries until the late 1960s, the disease was one of the most severe and devastating conditions for newborns. The disease has essentially been eradicated in high-income countries. You’d be forgiven for having never heard of Rh disease.
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