Bernhard Fleischer, German medical facility administrator, educator, scientist. Diplomate in medical microbiology. Recipient Junior Scientist award German Society for Microbiology and Hygiene, 1983, Pappenheim prize German Society for Hematology, 1986, Medical Research award SmithKline Beecham Beecham Foundation, 1990, Promotional award Robert Koch Foundation, 1993, Aronson prize State of Berlin, 1997, others.

Background

Fleischer, Bernhard was born on December 25, 1950 in Leipzig, Germany.

Education

Doctor of Medicine, University giessen, Germany, 1977.

Career

Postdoctoral fellow, Institute for Virology/U. Giessen, 1977-1979; postdoctoral fellow, Institute for Virology and Immunobioogy/U. Würzburg, Germany, 1979-1983; assistant professor department medical microbiology and immunology, U. Ulm, Germany, 1983-1986; associate professor, U. Ulm, Germany, 1986-1987; associate professor 1st department medicine, U. Mainz, Germany, 1987-1993; professor, U. Hamburg, Germany, since 1993; department chairman medical microbiology, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, since 1993; vice director, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, 1994-1996; director, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, since 1996. Member of advisory board German Institute for Medical State Examinations, since 1991.

Membership

Member American Association Immunologists, American Society for Microbiology, German Society Hygiene and Microbiology (advisory board since 1994), German Society for Immunology (advisory board), Academy of Sciences of 1794 (Erfurt), German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

Connections

Married Sabine Fleischer. Children: Lennart, Henrike, Wiebke.

• Spouse :   Sabine Fleischer

  • • child :   Lennart Fleischer

    • child :   Wiebke Fleischer

    • child :   Henrike Fleischer

• Born :  December 25, 1950  in  Leipzig, Germany

• Nationality :   German

• Ethnicity :   German

Education

• 1977
  University Giessen , Doctor of Medicine

Career

• 1977 - 1979 :   Postdoctoral fellow , Institute for Virology/U. Giessen

• 1979 - 1983 :   Postdoctoral fellow , Institute for Virology/U. Giessen ,   Germany

• 1983 - 1986 :   assistant professor department medical microbiology and immunology , University Ulm ,   Germany

• 1987 - 1993 :  associate professor 1st department medicine , University Mainz,  Germany

• 1993 :  professor , University Hamburg, Germany

• 1993 :   Chairman department medical microbiology , Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany, Germany

Since November 30, 2017 Bernhard Fleischer, Professor at Bernhard Nocht Institute, has become Visiting Professor of Medical Genetics at Yerevan State Medical University.

Bernhard Fleischer is a German physician, parasitologist and immunologist. He received his medical education at the Universities of Giessen and Hamburg. In 1993 he became professor of tropical medicine and immunology at the University of Hamburg then he became Director of the Institute of Immunology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.

During different periods of professional career, Professor Fleischer worked in some of the most popular and top-ranking universities in Germany and directed [Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine], Hamburg.

Bernhard Fleischer is a member of the Leopoldina (since 1995) and a member of the Academy of Sciences in Hamburg. In 1992 he was awarded the prize of the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology, and in 1997 he was awarded the Aronson Prize.

The Professor participated in numerous international conferences and his articles were published in the world’s most famous journals.

Editor's note: At the end of March [2003], only two months after we learned about the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in southern China, professor [Dr. Bernhard Fleischer (born 1950)] of the [Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine] in Hamburg, Germany, discovered a virus believed to be responsible for causing the disease. Eliza Sarnacka-Mahoney, a freelance journalist from Fort Collins, talked with Fleischer last week. Following are excerpts from that interview.

• QUESTION: Is research to create a vaccine well under way?

• [Dr. Bernhard Fleischer (born 1950)]: As far as I know, yes. But for whatever reason, the (World Health Organization) still remains somewhat reluctant to admit it is the new coronavirus that causes SARS and so has not included it as criteria for the disease yet. I hope they will do it soon, for it will signal a green light for many more scientists around the world who are presently waiting for that ''official'' decision. As it is with many more dangerous viruses, we need a vaccine against it to start working toward eliminating SARS from our lives someday.  ... Seeing how the epidemic is unfolding in China and Hong Kong gives us an ever-clearer understanding how hard it is to contain this infection. ... And if this is the case, then the disease will spread all over the world and will be with us for some time.

• QUESTION: The way the virus travels is another mystery. We have been hearing that it can have various levels of infectiousness, depending on a geographical location. Apparently, SARS is more contagious in Asia than in the United States?

• ANSWER: Well, that's the way it was/is presented by the media. But really ... some people turn out to be more contagious than others. ... Yet we do not know why some people are better transmitters than others and why some do not spread the virus at all, even though they have it and fall ill themselves. The press reported on a man from Hong Kong whose body produced 100,000 times more copies of the virus than an average SARS patient. It turned out he had been recovering from an organ transplant and was taking immunosuppressing drugs. His immune system worked differently. We can suspect then, that people with any kind of an immune system deficiency are better transmitters than others. Since it is impossible to determine such things at first glance or contact ... all patients undergo the same kind of quarantine and are hospitalized. Fortunately for us, we also have a very good test.

• QUESTION: How does the test work?

• ANSWER: It's a very fast PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test. It is extremely sensitive, so you could detect very few copies of the virus, and you'll know within an hour whether the person has the virus or not. To compare, antibodies, which could be another way of determining the infection, appear in the patient's bloodstream only a day after he has been infected.

• QUESTION: How long is the incubation period for this new virus?

• ANSWER: Three to five days. If you do not show symptoms after seven days, you probably are fine. If nothing occurs after 10 days, then you do not carry the virus

• QUESTION: When you announced to the world that your scientists have identified the virus behind SARS, you also said you did not believe we were heading for a global SARS epidemic. Do you still think that?

• ANSWER: Well, I thought so early on ... but I am very doubtful now. Perhaps nobody expected the virus to be as contagious as it has proven to be. Now, I think that SARS is going to be a problem for medical communities around the world for quite a while and that a global epidemic is possible, even if we do have the vaccine very soon.

• QUESTION: Very soon, meaning when?

• ANSWER: Available within a year or so. The work is proceeding extremely fast this time. It has only been two months from the first note that there is this new disease going around, and we have already identified the responsible agents. Such speed is unprecedented in medical history. On the other hand, it is very likely that a vaccine might not be ready for the next few years.

• QUESTION:  While we wait, is there anything we can do to protect ourselves from SARS?

• ANSWER: Unfortunately, I don't think there's much we can do. People who find themselves in the centers of the epidemic or have to travel there should definitely take precautions - wear masks, wash their hands frequently and avoid crowds, if possible. On the other hand, we should not panic too much. If you consider that in a city of 10 million people you have 100 people who are infectious running around, your chances of getting the virus are only 1 in 100,000. Most patients fully recover from SARS within two weeks. Those who have died from it were patients with other medical conditions affecting their respiratory and immune systems.

• QUESTION:  Do you think that involuntary quarantine - even of potentially healthy individuals - such as has been done in Toronto, San Jose and Hong Kong, is the best method to fight this and any future infections?

• ANSWER:  Let's start with the fact that any quarantine requires cooperation of the people. If we have that, then it will always be a great help. But people are people, and you have to expect that they may not want to make themselves visible for whatever reason. Personally, I support it. We have had only three SARS cases in Germany so far; we treated those people and now we haven't seen any secondary cases, something that did happen in other countries, for example, in the United Kingdom.

• Q; What about herbal remedies - for example, echinacea? Many people believe they help boost our immune system and fight diseases. Would taking such supplements help reduce the likelihood of infection, or - at least - the severity of the infection?

• ANSWER:  It is difficult to answer. There are many things that influence our immune system: eating habits, exercise, perhaps herbs, but nobody is sure in which way exactly or how it works. So until there are answers backed up by reliable research, it has to remain a personal choice.

• QUESTION:  The new virus has, in a way, laughed in the face of modern medicine, reminding us that the battle with microbes is still on in spite of all the resources we have against them. Should it also be a warning that one day we might be hit by an epidemic comparable in size and potency to the influenza of 1918?

• ANSWER:  I don't think we will face anything like 1918 again. But it is extremely important that we keep on fighting, because the reality is that the more vaccines we create, the more clever the viruses get. Microbes keep fmding ways to overcome weapons we have against them. Their resistance toward tuberculosis treatment is what comes to mind immediately, and - let's admit it - the recent TB outbreaks are bigger problems than SARS. Microbes keep outwitting us. They become resistant to a new drug that becomes available extremely quickly, within just one year, as in the current cases of malaria or HIV. Not so long ago, a new vaccine was good for a decade.