21. Dr. Carlo Urbani
Dr. Carlo Urbani studied infectious and tropical diseases in Africa and Southeast Asia, as a prominent member of Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) beginning in the 1980s. In the 1990s he became a leading advocate against pharmaceutical companies and the high costs they charged for essential medicines in the treatment of diseases such as malaria and AIDS. The 1999 Nobel Peace Prize went to a delegation of which he was a leading member. He used the financial rewards from the Nobel Prize to promote access to medications for the world’s poor. By 2003 he was one of the world’s most respected authorities in the field of infectious diseases, working from his laboratory in Macerata, Italy.
That year the French Hospital of Hanoi called Dr. Urbani to consult on the case of Johnny Chen, an American with business affairs in Vietnam. In February, 2003, Urbani determined that Chen was suffering from a previously unknown virus, and not influenza suspected by the doctors at the French Hospital. Urbani notified the WHO and helped establish quarantine and isolation procedures. Screening of travelers was adopted by the Vietnamese authorities in response to his urging. In March, Dr. Urbani flew to Bangkok, becoming ill on the airplane. Hospitalized in isolation, he died of the virus he had been the first to identify on March 29, 2003. He died from severe acute respiratory syndrome – SARS – a syndrome caused by the coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-1. His quick actions and recommendations were credited with preventing the first outbreak of SARS from becoming a global pandemic.
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“Jesse Lazear”. Article, The History of Vaccines. Online
“Clara Louise Maass”. Article, American Association for the History of Nursing. Online
“A century of the US Army yellow fever research”. Michael McCarthy, The Lancet. June 2, 2001
“Malaria in World War 2” Article, Army Heritage Center Foundation. Online
“The Redemption of Nathan Leopold, Maybe”. Helen Andrews, First Things. January 29, 2013. Online
“Ugly past of U.S. human experiments uncovered”. Mike Stobbe, NBC News. February 28, 2011. Online
“The death of Dr. Matthew”. James Astill, The Guardian. January 2, 2001