Rijk Gispen, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Rijk Gispen

Date of Birth: 25-Nov-1910

Place of Birth: Zwolle, Overijssel, Netherlands

Date of Death: 06-Dec-2000

Profession: university teacher, virologist

Nationality: Kingdom of the Netherlands

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius

Rijk Gispen (b.1910 - 6 December 2000), was a Dutch virologist and former Director of the National Institute of Public Health in the Netherlands.
He is well known for his research in immunology and the study of orthopoxviruses. In 1949, he reported naturally occurring pox infections in non-human primates.
Fifteen years later, he isolated monkeypox virus from healthy monkey kidneys in the Netherlands, "silent monkeypox virus infections".
At the time, the virus appeared indistinguishable from smallpox.
Despite the finding being of some debate, it gave cause for concern and provided the impetus to continue World Health Organization (WHO) field research into the potential existence of a smallpox reservoir. In the 1970s, he contributed to the immunology of orthopoxvirus infections by being the first to develop means of distinguishing between antibodies due to infections with variola, vaccinia and monkeypox.