Frank Donal Schofield

Frank Donal Schofield left a legacy surpassed by very few in the field of public health. His seminal work (with Westbrook and Tucker) was published in the BMJ in 1961 (BMJ 1961;ii:785) in which he described the use of tetanus toxoid immunisation in pregnant women to prevent neonatal tetanus. The strategy was adopted as global health policy virtually overnight. As a result the lives of over one million infants have been saved annually, and it is estimated that over 40 million have been saved since the inception of the global programme. In addition, between 10 000 and 40 000 women a year have been spared from puerperal tetanus. From …