14 Facts About Norbert Hirschhorn

Norbert Hirschhorn was born on 1938 and is an Austrian-born American public health physician.

Norbert Hirschhorn was one of the inventors and developers of the life-saving method called oral rehydration therapy for adults and children suffering fluid loss from cholera and other infectious diarrheal illnesses.

Norbert Hirschhorn escaped the Nazi regime with his parents to London, where they spent the war until immigrating to the United States.

Norbert Hirschhorn has three children from his first marriage: Elisabeth Hirschhorn Donahue, John Hirschhorn and Robert Hirschhorn.

Norbert Hirschhorn graduated from Columbia College, Columbia University in the City of New York in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts, and later received his medical degree at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1962.

Norbert Hirschhorn specialized in internal medicine with internship and residencies at Boston City Hospital, Harvard II and IV medical services, and gained certification in 1970 from the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Norbert Hirschhorn joined the US Public Health Service in 1964, and was assigned to the Pakistan-Seato Cholera Research Laboratory, Dacca, East Pakistan, where he conducted research on cholera and other diarrheal diseases and demonstrated the proof of concept of oral rehydration therapy.

From that work, Norbert Hirschhorn established the clinical physiology of rehydration in children.

In 1978, Joel Lamstein and Norbert Hirschhorn founded John Snow, Incorporated, named after the father of epidemiology, John Snow, and initially launched as a small for-profit business focused on health care in the United States.

In 1980, the organization began working internationally, with Norbert Hirschhorn serving as Vice-President of the International Division.

From 1990 to 1993, with a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization team, Norbert Hirschhorn conducted research on pesticide poisoning in Indonesian farmers.

From 1993 to 1995, Norbert Hirschhorn was Visiting Professor of Public Health at the University of Minnesota.

Norbert Hirschhorn then left JSI to join the Minnesota Department of Health, directing the Division of Family Health.

Norbert Hirschhorn writes book reviews, and has published seven collections of poetry.