Savchenko, Ivan

Savchenko, Ivan [Савченко, Іван; Savčenko], b 2 March 1862 in Romny county, Poltava gubernia, d 3 November 1932. Pathologist and microbiologist. A graduate of Kyiv University (1888), he worked there and in Illia Mechnikov’s laboratory at the Pasteur Institute (1895). He was a professor at Kazan University (1896–1919) and later at Kuban University (1920–32). In Kazan he also worked at the local bacteriological institute, and in Krasnodar he directed the Kuban Chemico-Bacteriological Institute. In 1905 he prepared an anti–scarlet fever serum, which was widely used in Russia and abroad. In the Kuban he organized efforts to control infectious diseases, such as scarlet fever, malaria, and typhus. He wrote scientific works on infectious diseases, immunity, phagocytosis, leprosy, cholera, anthrax, typhus, rheumatism, and pneumonia. With Danylo Zabolotny he performed the first enterovaccination experiment: after taking a vaccine by mouth, he swallowed a live culture of cholera.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]