An epidemiologist, in the late 1940s a vaccine looked promising to combat tuberculosis, which was running rampant. Comstock was assigned to test the latest “BCG” vaccine to ensure it was truly effective, but his study came to the startling conclusion that it was not — just in time to stop the planned immunization of children.
He then set to work to find something that would help contain the disease, and by 1952 had found that the drug isoniazid (INH) worked to prevent and treat tuberculosis. It has proved so effective that it’s still a first-line treatment today. Comstock then founded the Johns Hopkins Training Center for Public Health Research and Prevention, where he worked for 30 years researching cancer, heart disease, and other public health problems. Dr. Comstock never retired: he worked until a few days before his death on July 15, from prostate cancer. He was 92.