Golda Selzer (1910–1999) was an academic and pathologist at

Groote Schuur Hospital Groote Schuur Hospital is a large, government-funded, teaching hospital situated on the slopes of Devil's Peak in the city of Cape Town, South Africa. It was founded in 1938 and is famous for being the institution where the first human-to-huma ...

, and co-founder of

SHAWCO SHAWCO, the Students' Health and Welfare Centres Organisation, is a student-run NGO based at the University of Cape Town that seeks to improve the quality of life for individuals in developing communities within the Cape Metropolitan area. SHAW ...

. Selzer published extensively with over 50 articles of which more than 15 were on

poliomyelitis Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe sym ...

Early life

Golda Selzer was born in

Brandfort Brandfort, officially renamed Winnie Mandela in 2021, is a small agricultural town in the central Free State province of South Africa, about 60 km northeast of Bloemfontein on the R30 road. The town serves the surrounding farms for supplies ...

in the

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( nl, Oranje Vrijstaat; af, Oranje-Vrystaat;) was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeat ...

in 1910. She received her MBChB from the University of Cape Town in 1932. Golda was acting superintendent at the City Hospital in Infectious Diseases in 1934 and subsequently joined the Pathology Department at the Medical School of the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

. The South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) created the Virus Research Unit in the Department of Pathology in 1948 under Professor Van den Ende and Selzer was part of this very dynamic team. Selzer and Prof Alfred Polson were one of the first researchers to grow the polio virus in tissue culture and describe its physical and antigenic properties. She also developed a mouse model to understand the development of paralytic polio. Selzer was the first person to grow the

Rubella virus Rubella virus (RuV) is the pathogenic agent of the disease rubella, transmitted only between humans via the respiratory route, and is the main cause of congenital rubella syndrome when infection occurs during the first weeks of pregnancy. Rube ...

from an aborted foetus from a mother who had been infected with Rubella. This was a key link in understanding the genesis of

congenital heart defects A congenital heart defect (CHD), also known as a congenital heart anomaly and congenital heart disease, is a defect in the structure of the heart or great vessels that is present at birth. A congenital heart defect is classed as a cardiovascular ...

associated with children born from mothers infected with this virus. In 1971, she went to work in the Pathology Department of the

Tel Hashomer Hospital Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer ( he, המרכז הרפואי ע"ש חיים שיבא – תל השומר), also Tel HaShomer Hospital, is the largest hospital in Israel, located in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan at Tel HaShome ...

in Israel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Selzer, Golda South African pathologists 1910 births 1999 deaths