Karel Raška (; 17 November 1909 – 21 November 1987) was a Czech

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and

epidemiologist Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent diseases. It is a cornerstone ...

, who headed the successful international effort during the 1960s to eradicate

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

Early life

Raška was a Director of the WHO Division of Communicable Disease Control since 1963. His new concept of eliminating the disease was adopted by the WHO in 1967 and eventually led to the eradication of smallpox in 1977. Raška was also a strong promoter of the concept of

disease surveillance Disease surveillance is an epidemiological practice by which the spread of disease is monitored in order to establish patterns of progression. The main role of disease surveillance is to predict, observe, and minimize the harm caused by outbrea ...

, which was adopted in 1968 and has since become a standard practice in epidemiology. At the end of World War II, together with epidemiologist František Patočka, he was personally leading measures to stop the spread of

epidemic typhus Epidemic typhus, also known as louse-borne typhus, is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters where civil life is disrupted. Epidemic typhus is spread to people through contact wit ...

in the

Terezín concentration camp Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the Schutzstaffel, SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresiensta ...

. Despite being respected abroad, Raška's contribution to eradicating smallpox was not appreciated in

Communist Czechoslovakia The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, (Czech and Slovak: ''Československá socialistická republika'', ČSSR) known from 1948 to 1960 as the Czechoslovak Republic (''Československá republika)'', Fourth Czechoslovak Republic, or simply Czech ...

. In 1970 he was fired from the leadership of the Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology by communist authorities. In 1972 he was forced to retire, and was even banned from entering the Institute premises. The reason was personal enmity from the communist minister of health, . Raška revealed Prokopec plagiarized his doctoral thesis.

References

External links

Academic Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raska, Karel 1909 births 1987 deaths Czech public health doctors Czech epidemiologists Charles University alumni Academic staff of Charles University Smallpox eradication Czechoslovak physicians People from Klatovy District Recipients of the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, 1st class World Health Organization officials Czechoslovak epidemiologists Recipients of the Jenner Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine