Bela Schick


Schick, Béla

(bā`lə shĭk), 1877–1967, American pediatrician, b. Hungary, M.D. Karl Franz Univ., Graz, 1900. After having taught at the Univ. of Vienna (1902–23), he came to the United States. From 1923 he was a pediatrician at Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York. In 1929 he became a naturalized American citizen. He devised (1910–11) the Schick testSchick test,
diagnostic test designed to evaluate susceptibility to diphtheria. A small amount of diphtheria toxin is injected into the skin; the injection will produce an area of redness and swelling in individuals with low levels of antibody (i.e.
..... Click the link for more information.  to determine susceptibility to diphtheria. He also made important studies of allergy and wrote, with others, Scarlet Fever (1912) and Child Care Today (1933).

Bibliography

See biographies by A. Gronowicz (1954) and I. Noble (1963).

Schick, Bela

(1877–1967) pediatrician; born in Bolgar, Hungary. On the medical faculty at the University of Vienna, Austria (1902–23), he was a pioneer in studying childhood diseases such as scarlet fever, infantile diarrhea, diphtheria, and other diseases such as tuberculosis, serum sickness, and allergies, a new field of medicine. He developed what came to be known as the Schick test (1913), which determines a child's susceptibility to diphtheria. In 1923, he came to Mt. Sinai Hospital (New York City) to direct pediatrics, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1929. Recipient of the Howland Medal (1954), he helped found the American Academy of Pediatrics. In addition to various specialized works, he wrote Child Care Today (1933).