Symposium in Honor of Professor Heimburger on His 70^th Birthday

This supplement of Seminars in Thrombosis and Hemostasis contains articles by well-known experts on virus safety in the context of treatment of hemophiliacs. The articles were written to honor the life-long work of Professor Heimburger and are based on a symposium held in Münster/Westf, Germany, to commemorate his 70^th birthday.

What does the name Heimburger imply? Medicine is based on a continuous sequence of small discoveries that serve to improve the well being of mankind. From time to time, however, this evolutionary process is enhanced by milestone discoveries. The development of the treatment of hemophilia up to today's high standard of quality followed the same path-many small discoveries, few major ones. Some major milestone discoveries are the identification of the blood groups by Landsteiner, the purification of factor VIII from cryoprecipitate by Pool and the virus inactivation of plasma protein concentrates by Heimburger. The latter is especially important in view of the fact that 60,000 patients are HIV infected world-wide, and that annually 3000 are newly infected. The importance of Professor Heimburger's work was already recognized by the Federal Government of Germany by bestowing him with the medal ``Verdienstkreuz am Bande.''

Professor Heimburger was not only one of the first to recognize the problem of virus safety for plasma-derived protein concentrates, but he also developed a solution to this problem. For this reason, experts assembled at this symposium to gratefully look back on these developments and take inventory of what has been accomplished so far. The Hemophilia Society thanks Professor Heimburger for his work, which has prevented enormous grief for so many patients.