Alasdair Macintosh Geddes
She was found to be the index case of the outbreak and became the world's last reported fatality due to the disease, five years after he had gained experience on the frontline of the WHO's smallpox eradication programme in Bangladesh in 1973.
His early research included work on drug discovery and antibiotics, and the definitions and management of bacterial meningitis and pneumococcal disease.
Following the September 11 attacks, Geddes became an adviser on bioterrorism for the UK's Department of Health, his chief role being in the national smallpox plan and in biodefence training.
"[11] Throughout his career, Geddes authored almost 200 scientific publications covering a wide range of infectious disease topics.
[13] In 1977, he published on the efficacies of cephamycins, including their parenteral administration, dosages and penetrations through normal and inflamed blood–brain barrier.
[20] Later, in an interview in 2004, when asked if Parker's case had any link with the 1966 smallpox outbreak in Birmingham, he replied "it is probably significant that the initial case in the variola minor outbreak in the West Midlands in 1966 was, like Janet Parker, a photographer in the Birmingham Medical School, where research was being carried out on smallpox viruses.
[1] In chapter seven of the Report of a committee of inquiry into the future development of the Public Health Function, chaired by the then Chief Medical Officer Sir Donald Acheson and presented to parliament in the wake of the 1984 outbreak of Salmonella in Wakefield and the 1985 outbreak of legionellosis at Stafford, Geddes was noted to head a subcommittee to deal with control of communicable disease and infection.
By studying how the human immune system responded to TB, Geddes hoped that the results would lead to a new vaccine, more effective than the BCG.
[1] He has served as civilian consultant in infectious diseases and tropical medicine to the Royal Navy, Deputy Chairman of the Tropical Diseases Research Board of the UK Medical Research Council, and the Committee on Safety of Medicines and of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
[5] Following the September 11 attacks, Geddes became an adviser on bioterrorism for the UK's Department of Health, his chief role being in the national smallpox plan and in biodefence training.
The last smallpox case in Birmingham, UK, caused by a lab infection in 1978, was initially misdiagnosed by 3 physicians, leading to a significant delay in treatment and containment measures.
This fact underlines the importance of an appropriate education and training of physicians to diagnose disease caused by bioterroristic agents as part of the preparedness plans.
[5] The following year, the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy awarded him the Garrod Medal, following which he delivered its accompanying lecture.
