Poland 2011 Rudolf Stefan Weigl

One of the 4 stamps released on 29 August 2011 by Poland, on the theme of famous Poles, features Rudolf Stefan Weigl (1883-1957) who invented the first effective vaccine against epidemic typhus in 1933. Weigl's vaccine was made up of ground up lice; lice were responsible for the spread of typhus; the first major application of this vaccine took place between 1936 and 1943 by the Belgian missionaries in China. More modern vaccine against typhus has been invented since then.