Gertrud Theiler Prize in Physiology or Medicine for development of the yellow fever vaccine. Gertrud Theiler Gertrud Theiler (11 September 1897 – 2 May 1986) was a South African parasitologist and teacher most noted for her work with nematodes and ticks. Born on 11 September 1897 in Pretoria, South Africa, Theiler graduated from Pretoria Girls’ High School and spent a year at Rhodes University College in Grahamstown, South Africa, before transferring to South African College in Cape Town, where she graduated in 1918 with a Bachelor of Science degree. She went to Europe to undertake postgraduate work in helminthology at the University
Yellow fever vaccine neurologic complications in a few cases. Attempts to attenuate the virus used in the vaccine failed. Scientists at the Rockefeller Foundation developed another vaccine derived from the serum of an African named Asibi in 1927, the first isolation of the virus from a human. It was safer but involved the use of large amounts of human serum, which limited widespread use. Both vaccines were in use for several years, the Rockefeller vaccine in the Western hemisphere and England, and the Pasteur Institute vaccine in France and its African colonies. In 1937, Max Theiler, working with Hugh Smith at the Rockefeller