Smallpox vaccine inventor Edward Jennings (1749-1823) created the world's first successful vaccine in 1796. It has saved an estimated 500 million lives. Smallpox is the only human disease to have been eradicated.

French microbiologist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) invented the first rabies vaccine in 1885. An untreated bite from a rabid animal is nearly always fatal. He also invented the food preservation process pasteurization.

Dr. Thomas Francis, Jr. (1900-1969) was instrumental in developing influenza vaccines during WWII. Before the vaccines, more soldiers died from flu than on the battlefield. Assisting Francis was a young Dr. Jonas Salk.

Dr. Jonas Salk (1914-1995), fresh out of mentor Dr. Thomas Francis's lab, invented the first safe and effective polio vaccine in 1955. The disease was virtually eradicated in the Western Hemisphere within a few years. The boy Dr. Salk is inoculating is his son Peter, who appears in Virulent.

Microbiologist Maurice Hilleman (1919-2005) is the most prolific creator of vaccines with over 40 to his credit including the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine that is widely given during early childhood.

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