Charles Nicolle

Charles Nicolle was a French bacteriologist who discovered that the body louse transmitted the disease called Tyhpus. For this discovery he received Nobel Prize in 1928. Nicolle observed that the Typhus patients admitted to the hospitals did not infect the staff. He concluded that the disease was passed on by contact with the victim's skin or clothing. Since the patients were given bath and their clothes were washed thoroughly as a standard procedure before they were admitted, the typhus did not spread. Nicolle proved this by infecting a healthy monkey using a louse which had fed chimpanzee with typhus. His discovery led to routine de-lousing of soldiers fighting in World War I. 

Nicolle first studied typhus fever epidemics in Tunis when he was the director of the Pasteur Institute. He was involved in the research and development of serums and vaccines for a variety of diseases including measles, diphtheria and tuberculosis. Nicolle also studied the flea-borne form of typhus, transmitted by rats.

	Nobel Prize for Medicine ' 99
	List of Nobel Prize winners for Medicine