Hobart Reimann

Hobart Ansteth Reimann (1897–1986) was an American virologist and physician. Reimann made contributions to medicine with his 1938 landmark article on atypical pneumonia (the "first description of virus pneumonia"); and articles on periodic disease and the common cold (1948). He was active in the testing of streptomycin against typhoid, with "the first publicly reported successful experiments."

From 1935 through 1962, he wrote The Journal of the American Medical Association's annual review of Significant Publications in the Field of Infectious Diseases, providing the AMA's synopsis of progress in the field. Post 1962, he continued this work in the Archives of Internal Medicine and the British Postgraduate Medical Journal through to 1975, "40 consecutive Annual Reviews."

Post WWII, he was one of the early voices to speak against the overuse of and misuse of antibiotics, and he testified before the US Senate on this subject in the early 1960s.

Life and career

Early career

On completing his training at the University of Buffalo Medical School, Reimann worked as first as resident and then as chief house physician at the Buffalo General Hospital. A stint as assistant physician at the Rockefeller Institute followed, working on the transformation of the pneumococcus from a rough strain to smooth and back again, under the direction of pioneering immunochemist Oswald Avery.

He spent a year at the Anton Ghon institute in Prague, as a specialist in infectious diseases, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tuberculous. After came two years in China as associate professor of medicine at the Beijing Union Medical College. He then returned to the United States, where the Great Depression was manifesting, taking a position at the University of Minnesota as associate professor of medicine. While at Minnesota, he wrote the first edition of his textbook, which became the four-volume series Treatment in General Medicine.