The woman discovered the first corona virus on the human body in 1964

June Almeida was born in 1930, the same woman who discovered the first human coronavirus in the world.

Her childhood was spent in a neighborhood near Alexandra Park, northeast of Glasgow, England. At the age of 16, Almeida dropped out of school and became a histopathologist at the Royal Glasgow Hospital. A few years later, she moved to London to work and married a Venezuelan artist, Mr. Enriques Almeida at the age of 24. Later, the whole family moved to Toronto in Canada. Here, Almeida has made great strides in his career.

Picture 1 of The woman discovered the first corona virus on the human body in 1964
June Almeida.

As writer George Winter commented: "During her time at the Ontario Cancer Institute, Almeida showed her outstanding skills with electron microscopy. Besides, she was the first. leprosy in using antibodies to synthesize viruses, making it easier for researchers to better visualize them. "

Only a short time later, Almeida's talent quickly shone and received much recognition, Almeida received many job offers at hospitals in England. In 1964, she went to work at the medical school of St Thomas Hospital, where Covid-19 was treated for Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently. Here, Almeida began a collaboration with Dr. David Tyrrell, who was studying at the common cold unit in the city of Salisbury, Wiltshire county, England.

At the time, Dr. Tyrrell and his team discovered several viruses related to the common cold from the volunteer team. This included a special sample known as the B814 strain that was found from the nasal fluid of a boarding school student in Surrey. The team found that the new virus could be transmitted between volunteers with common cold symptoms, but they could not be cultivated. Besides, they also noticed the growth and development of this virus in their organs.

Picture 2 of The woman discovered the first corona virus on the human body in 1964
Coronavirus.

They quickly sent samples to June Almeida, who said she had seen the virus particles under a microscope, they looked like flu viruses, but not quite the same. Almeida confirmed this was the first case of the Corona virus found in the human body. Writer Winter said that Dr. Almeida had seen the virus during his study of mouse hepatitis and infectious bronchitis of chickens. But her research papers in a magazine were rejected and people commented that the images she provided were only ugly photos of the flu virus.

In 1965, new findings on the B814 strain were published in the British Journal of Medicine and two years later, Almeida's photographs were published in the journal General Virology. Dr. Tyrrell with Almeida and the person in charge of St Thomas's hospital, Professor Tony Waterson, all three have named the new strain Corona virus because under the electron microscope, it has a halo of bright light. Wrapped around the outer layer looks like a crown.

Almeida later transferred and was awarded a doctorate at the Graduate School of Medicine in London. She ended her career at the Wellcome Institute, and during her years here, she continued to receive many patents in the field of virus imaging. After leaving Wellcome, Almeida gave up his job and became a yoga teacher. By the end of 1980, she returned to the profession as an advisor to support HIV imaging. In June 2007, Almeida died at the age of 77. It was not until 13 years after her death that she was recognized as a pioneer in discovering the Corona virus.