MOSCOW, October 1 – Novosti. Russian President Vladimir Putin greeted the participants of the event dedicated to the opening of the monument to the great scientist Zinaida Yermolyeva, and also stressed the importance of her work in saving many people, according to the Kremlin website.
“It is symbolic that the monument was erected in Rostov-on-Don , the city where Zinaida Vissarionovna achieved her first scientific successes. Thanks to her selfless work, the results of truly unique research, millions of people were saved. And, of course, the organization in years of the Great Patriotic War, the production of medicines for cholera. This is a feat of a real doctor, selflessly devoted to the Motherland and his noble calling, “the telegram says.
The head of state noted that the opening of the monument to Zinaida Yermolyeva is timed to coincide with the 125th anniversary of her birth and takes place in the year of the 100th anniversary of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service of the Russian Federation, at the origins of which stood Zinaida Vissarionovna.
The Russian leader expressed confidence that the mark left by Zinaida Yermolyeva would be a contribution to the further development of Russian medical science and healthcare.
Putin wished all the participants the best impressions.
Zinaida Ermolyeva (1898-1974) graduated with a gold medal from the Mariinsky Women’s Gymnasium in Novocherkassk , the medical faculty of the Don University. At a young age, risking her life, she made a discovery that defeated cholera. During the Great Patriotic War, she invented the Soviet analogue of penicillin. Under her leadership, levomycetin, streptomycin, interferon, etc. were developed.
The name of Yermolyeva is associated with the beginning of the mass use of bacteriophages in the USSR during the Battle of Stalingrad. During the blockade of the city, an outbreak of cholera occurred on the side of the enemy in the frontline zone. To prevent the spread of the disease in the ranks of Soviet soldiers, Yermolyeva was sent to the besieged Stalingrad with a batch of bacteriophages. The valuable cargo was bombed by German aircraft along the way. Upon arrival in the city, Ermolyeva organized an underground laboratory for the production of cholera bacteriophage. Every day, about 50 thousand people received the medicine, which prevented the development of the disease in the city.
