Bakersfield Life

A lifetime of research

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"We were the first ones to show that the disease could be treated in its most severe forms--done here by people working with me, funding by the Lung Association."--Hans Einstein
In 1933, Ad..."We were the first ones to show that the disease could be treated in its most severe forms--done here by people working with me, funding by the Lung Association."--Hans Einstein
In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany and brought the Nazis to power. That was also the year 10-year old Hans Einstein and his family fled Germany for the Netherlands, where he would live until 1939, the year he first set foot on American soil. His path would eventually lead him to Bakersfield, to a life’s work in a field that would recognize him as a pioneer in the treatment and cure of a disease that has baffled scientists for 100 years, a disease commonly referred to as valley fever.

Born in Berlin in 1923, Hans Einstein was the son of a doctor, and if his name sounds familiar, it should. His grandfather’s cousin was Albert, the most famous Einstein — relatively speaking. “I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of that name,” said Hans, 86, who automatically added that he and Albert are first cousins, twice removed. “I get that question a lot,” he said.

Einstein attended college at Furman University in Greenville, S.C., and completed his medical degree and internship at New York Medical College. In 1947, he returned to his roots in Germany, but this time as an American doctor.

After serving as an officer in the United States Army of Occupation in Germany, Einstein returned to the States in 1949 and began training in his field of specialization: internal medicine, specifically pulmonology. After just two years, fairer weather beckoned. “I always wanted to live in California,” said Einstein, so when he discovered an opportunity to finish his specialty training at an approved institution in California called Kern General Hospital (now Kern Medical Center), he took it.

It was as easy as that. Einstein moved west and never looked back.

When he finished his final year of specialty training under the physicians at Kern General Hospital, Einstein opened his own practice but remained particularly interested in continuing research of a pulmonary infection unique to the region called coccidioidomycosis, or valley fever. Valley fever is a disease caused by a fungus that grows in soil in certain parts of the country. Construction, oil production, or any physical disruption of dirt can send the spores airborne, where inhalation may cause infection in the lungs.

In the 1950s, Einstein and other physicians were working to find a treatment for the infection when New York University researchers stumbled upon a fungi-killing bacteria growing on the shores of the Orinoco River in Venezuela. They manufactured the bacteria into a drug and asked Einstein to test the drug on patients suffering from valley fever. He agreed, and it worked. “We were the first ones here to use a medication, the first effective drug, against the disease.” That drug, Amphotericin, is still in use today.

Einstein and his study group have worked since the 1970s on a vaccine for valley fever, but technical problems have prevented rapid advancements. First, there are no real vaccines against fungi, said Einstein, like there are against viral and bacterial diseases. Second, funding is an obstacle. “This is a disease that affects a small part of the population, so the market is not going to be as great as for flu (vaccines),” said Einstein. “Big companies don’t make money with it.” However, with ongoing help from private contributions, the state and county, Einstein hopes to have a vaccine within 10 years.

After 25 years of private practice, Einstein joined the USC faculty, where he continued his research for 10 years before returning to Bakersfield to serve his community as medical director of Memorial Hospital.

In 1999, at the age of 76, Einstein finally retired from the medical field — almost. He still spends much of his “retirement” in dedication to the field of pulmonary diseases working at the Valley Fever Clinic at Kern Medical Center, the TB clinic at the County Health Department, and as the medical director for training respiratory therapists at San Joaquin Valley College.

Einstein is humble about his accomplishments. “I hope I made small but significant contributions to the welfare of my patients, particularly those with valley fever.

“We were the first ones to show that the disease could be treated in its most severe forms — done here by people working with me, funding by the Lung Association.”

Significant contributions, indeed. However, there is nothing small about what Dr. Einstein has done for this community and for the advancement of valley fever research.