Michael Burri | Clemens von Pirquet and Austria’s Interwar Hunger Crisis

Clemens von Pirquet, an Austrian pediatrician and scientist, held a prominent role in the international post-WWI humanitarian relief efforts during Austria’s hunger crisis. Pirquet directed his unique, scientific-based system of nutrition (no cocoa here, please) with the support of the American Relief Administration. As a result of this transatlantic partnership, hundreds of thousands of Austrian children were saved from starvation. Pirquet is primarily remembered today for his eponymous tuberculin skin test and for imparting the term ‘allergy’ to represent the body’s heightened responses to a foreign substance. In this podcast with Dr. Michael Burri, we appreciate Pirquet’s significant achievements as an early global public health figure.