smallpox

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May 3, 2012 | 12:28 AM | By  | 

The most influential person in global health | 

Tom Paulson

Bill Foege in the hills near his boyhood home of Colville, Washington

Is Bill Foege.

This may sound like a personal opinion but it is, in fact, an informed, journalistic and observational if slightly gestalt statement of reality … insofar as I can tell.

I’ve covered global health as a journalist now for as long as it’s been a popular phrase and I would argue — with anyone, Bill Gates, Bono or Jimmy Carter if need be — that Bill Foege is probably the single most important person in global health.

The reason he has been so influential is the same reason so many people don’t seem to know who he is — or if you do know of him, how to pronounce his name.

It’s Fay-Ghee. Not Fogey. Or Foje.

You should know his name because he’s the guy who figured out the strategy that rid the world of smallpox — so far the only human disease ever eradicated. Foege is credited by Bill and Melinda Gates for helping craft their global health mission — a mission that now, arguably, sets the agenda for international health.

He was the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, appointed by President Jimmy Carter and stayed on for the first part of the Reagan Administration when the AIDS epidemic first emerged. His career in global health started half a century ago, when he and his wife Paula moved to Nigeria where he worked as a medical missionary.

Tom Paulson

Bill and Paula Foege's home in eastern Nigeria

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, Bill Foege, Jimmy Carter, Obama Administration, smallpox
June 28, 2011 | 12:57 PM | By  | 

Which four diseases face total eradication? Bill Foege predicts extension of smallpox success | 

by Tom Paulson

Bill Foege

Smallpox was, until today, the only disease that had ever been eradicated from the planet.

The United Nations today declared that rinderpest, a cattle disease that when prevalent had profound adverse impact on humanity, is now the second disease to have been eradicated.

Bill Foege, one of our local boys made good, is a big fan of disease eradication.

Foege is the world-renowned physician who figured out the strategy that succeeded in wiping out smallpox. He is featured in an interview on disease eradication on PRI’s The World today “How to Kill a KIller Disease.”

Here’s a story I did almost a year ago about Foege on the 30th anniversary of the eradication of smallpox. You may notice that PRI used the same photo — a photo I took of Bill in Colville, Eastern Washington, where he grew up.

Foege, a former chief of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and now a senior adviser to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has written a fascinating book on the global campaign to eradicate smallpox called “House on Fire.” On PRI, he predicted that four more diseases will be eradicated soon.

“I think maybe six diseases will be eradicated before I die,” said Foege, listing the next four as polio, guinea worm, measles and onchocerciasis (river blindness). What about malaria?

“Malaria may take a little longer … but we need to try to eradicate malaria and I’m very optimistic about it,” he said.

FILED UNDER: Health, Bill Foege, eradication, smallpox
May 16, 2011 | 8:00 AM | By  | 

World Health Assembly opens to Taiwan outrage, smallpox debate, speeches by Bill Gates and Muhammad Yunus’ arch-enemy | 

WHO

World Health Organization

The World Health Assembly opens today in Geneva for week-long confab on what to do about global health.

I’ve not attended one of these meetings, which sets priorities for the World Health Organization, but from a distance it always looks like kind of a mess. A well-intentioned mess maybe but a mess nonetheless, partly because almost everything under the sun is allowed a place on the agenda. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Politics, Bill Gates, cell phones, maternal health, microfinance, polio, smallpox, World Health Assembly, World Health Organization
May 4, 2011 | 8:15 AM | By  | 

Global public health champion dies | 

Emory

David Sencer

David Sencer, the longest-serving director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and one of the leaders of the U.S. contribution to the smallpox campaign, died Monday at age 86.

The New York Times quoted Bill Foege, Sencer’s friend and successor as CDC chief, now a senior adviser to the Gates Foundation:

“He said you couldn’t protect U.S. citizens from smallpox without getting rid of it in the world, and that was a new approach,” said Foege, who helped lead the smallpox effort in the field and developed the eradication strategy. “People in the field got all the praise, but he was the unsung hero.”

As a journalist who has covered public health issues for decades, I had many occasions to talk with Dave. He was not always well treated by the media and, in my opinion, was blamed for some public health mishaps he could not have anticipated or controlled. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Foege, CDC, David Sencer, Family Health International, smallpox, Ward Cates
August 26, 2010 | 9:00 AM | By  | 

How We Got Rid of Smallpox, Why It Matters | 

Ghanaian Boy with Smallpox

CDC

Ghanaian Boy with Smallpox

This was a horrible, terrifying disease.

Smallpox.

It’s hard for many of us to appreciate now what an awful scourge this viral infection once was, in the mid-1960s still causing 15 million cases a year and killing nearly as many as AIDS today.

And now it’s gone, eradicated. The only disease, so far, wiped off the face of the planet.

Some of those who helped rid the world of this disease are meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this week. The Smallpox 2010 conference is being held to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the official declaration that “smallpox is dead” — and to apply what was learned to assist other efforts aimed at eradicating diseases like polio, measles and even perhaps malaria.

Some say it was the global campaign to eradicate smallpox that paved the way for today’s concept of global health.

One of those attending the Rio meeting is Dr. Bill Foege, who I can say (because he won’t) was the guy who figured out how to finally beat smallpox.

Foege, who grew up in Colville, went to Pacific Lutheran University and then to the University of Washington to become a doctor, arguably came up with the strategy that turned the tide in the smallpox campaign. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Science, Bill Foege, smallpox