Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine

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Tower of the main house with relief " Shield with bowl and snake, man with staff and woman with amphora " by Bossard

The Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine ( BNITM ) in Hamburg is the largest institute for tropical medicine in Germany and currently employs around 250 people in Hamburg. It is a member of the Leibniz Association .

history

The cholera epidemic of 1892 claimed thousands of deaths and prompted the Senate and the citizens of Hamburg to reform the health system . The Tropical Medicine Institute was founded with the support of the Reich Government for research into marine and tropical diseases and for the training of marine and colonial doctors. In 1893 the marine doctor Bernhard Nocht was introduced to the newly created office of port doctor. A department in the St. Georg General Hospital was also set up for him to provide medical care for internally ill seafarers. Contrary to the plans of the bacteriologist Robert Koch , Nocht put Hamburg through in 1899 as the location for an institute for research into tropical diseases , because "the overseas traffic means that there is a large number of sick people to be cared for". On October 1, 1900, the new Institute for Ship and Tropical Diseases with 24 employees started its work in the former administration building of the seaman's hospital on Hamburg's Landungsbrücken. Inpatient care has been taking place at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf since 2006 . In 2014, the Hamburg Ebola patient was treated in the local treatment center for highly pathogenic infectious diseases (BZHI) .

building

Institute building south side, with the new laboratory building in the foreground and the old building in the background

The three-part brick building with laboratory wing, hospital and animal house was built between 1910 and 1914 according to plans by Fritz Schumacher . The building wing is located in the St. Pauli district between Bernhard-Nocht-Straße on the high north side and the slope of Davidstraße leading down to the harbor bank . After 1945, the bomb-damaged building was rebuilt. From 2003, a new wing was built on the site of the former animal house, which was put into operation at the end of January 2008. The high-security laboratories in particular have been completely redesigned and have been among the safest in the world since then ( biological protection level 4 ).

The numerous decorative reliefs on the facade of the old building were made by the artist Johann Michael Bossard .

The buildings of the regional headquarters of the German Meteorological Service and the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency are adjacent to the east along the road

research

The institute is divided into three research sections: the area of molecular biology and immunology , the area of ​​clinical research and the area of epidemiology and diagnostics. The National Reference Center for Tropical Infectious Pathogens is also located in the BNITM. Until the end of 2007, the Bernhard Nocht Institute was sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Health and the Authority for Social Affairs, Family, Health and Consumer Protection of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. On January 1, 2008, the BNITM was merged into a foundation of the Leibniz Association .

Current research interests of the institute form of malaria , hemorrhagic fever viruses ( Lassa virus , Marburg virus , Ebola virus or Crimean-Congo virus ), immunology, epidemiology and clinical tropical infections as well as the mechanisms of viral transmission by mosquitoes. For handling highly pathogenic viruses and infected insects, the institute has laboratories of the highest biological safety level (BSL4) and a safety insectarium (BSL3). The BNITM comprises the national reference center for the detection of all tropical infectious agents and the WHO cooperation center for arboviruses and hemorrhagic fever viruses. Together with the Ghanaian Ministry of Health and the University of Kumasi, it operates a modern research and training center in the West African rainforest, which is also available to external working groups.

The institute's recent successes include the identification and development of a test for the SARS pathogen ( Christian Drosten , Stephan Günther 2003) and the development of new therapeutic approaches against roundworms , especially for river blindness ( Achim Hörauf 1998) Bacteria living symbiotic with the worms, and the elucidation of a still missing transition stage of the malaria pathogen ( Merosome , Volker Heussler 2006). The couple Paul Racz and Klara Tenner-Racz from the Institute's Pathology Department are also known for their achievements in AIDS research.

Directors

Since 2008 the institute has been headed by a foundation board. This consists of three scientists and the commercial director. The first chairman of the board was the physician Rolf Horstmann , who has headed the department for tropical medicine basic research at the BNITM since 1998. Bernhard Fleischer is the deputy chairman. The third member of the board is Egbert Tannich . At the beginning of 2018 he took up his position as chairman of the institute's board of directors and took over the development of the “Infection Diagnostics” department.

In addition to managing director Birgit Müller, Jürgen May and Stephan Günther moved to the board. There was also restructuring of the research groups. Michael Ramharter was appointed to the W3 professorship “Clinical Tropical Medicine” at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf and moved his “Clinical Research” department to the BNITM.

Others

The main research areas are now divided between the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the BNITM. While the BNITM is responsible for the international area, the RKI is responsible for research within Germany as well as the hygiene area.

A branch of the institute was located in the hospital of the German mining settlement Bong Town in the West African state of Liberia ; it was closed in the 1990s as a result of the civil war .

Health Minister Hermann Gröhe visited the BNITM on February 23, 2015 .

As a member of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community (WGL), the institute is funded by the federal government and the federal states equally as a “research institute of supraregional importance”.

The BNITM is also known in the population as "The Tropical Institute" or is sometimes colloquially referred to as the "Tropical Hospital".

The Bundeswehr Hospital Hamburg works closely with the BNITM, so that, among other things, the Tropical Medicine Department of the Bundeswehr Hospital has been housed in the BNITM since 2005 .

Since 2006 there has been no hospital operation directly at the BNITM.

The Bernhard Nocht Medal for Tropical Medicine is awarded by the Bernhard Nocht Institute and the German Society for Tropical Medicine, and the winner gives a lecture in Hamburg. Some of the award winners such as Walter Kikuth and Hans Vogel also conducted research at the Bernhard Nocht Institute.

literature

  • Erich Mannweiler: History of the Institute for Ship Diseases and Tropical Diseases in Hamburg 1900–1945 . Goecke and Evers, Keltern-Weiler 1998. (= Treatises of the Natural Science Association in Hamburg . NF Volume 32). ISBN 3-931374-32-7 .
  • Barbara Ebert (Red.): Bernhard Nocht Institute Hamburg 1900–2000. 100 years of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine . Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg 2000. ISBN 3-921762-01-4 . (Catalog for the exhibition on the 100th anniversary of the Tropical Institute).
  • Sven Tode: Research - Heal - Teach: 100 years of the Hamburg Tropical Institute . Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg 2000. ISBN 3-921762-02-2 (includes: Erich Mannweiler: Scientific work from a hundred years of tropical medicine in Hamburg ).
  • Stefan Wulf: The Hamburg Tropical Institute 1919 to 1945. Foreign cultural policy and colonial revisionism after Versailles , Dietrich Reimer Verlag , Berlin / Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-496-02537-9 .

Web links

Commons : Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Benno Kreuels, Dominic Wichmann, Petra Emmerich, Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit, Geraldine de Heer: A Case of Severe Ebola Virus Infection Complicated by Gram-Negative Septicemia . In: New England Journal of Medicine . tape 371 , no. 25 , December 18, 2014, ISSN  0028-4793 , p. 2394-2401 , doi : 10.1056 / NEJMoa1411677 , PMID 25337633 .
  2. ↑ BNITM press release of January 9, 2008
  3. ↑ Visit by BM Gröhe on February 23, 2015 on the BMG website
  4. ↑ About the institute on the BNITM website
  5. ↑ BNITM press release of January 9, 2008

Coordinates: 53 ° 32 '49 "  N , 9 ° 57' 54"  E