Dr. Joel Breman, an infectious disease expert and member of the first team that helped fight Ebola in 1976, died on April 6 at his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. He passed away at the age of 87.
His death was confirmed by his son Matthew, but the cause of death was not disclosed.
In 2014, as that year's new and more deadly Ebola outbreak raged, Dr. Breman recalled his pioneering mission, telling the National Health Service: “We lost our minds and were scared.” He spoke in the institute's newsletter.
Nearly 40 years ago, his team of five had just landed at a remote Roman Catholic mission hospital in the interior of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They were battling an unknown viral infection with no name or cause, accompanied by high fevers and bleeding that resulted in painful, instant death.
Dr. Breman, sent by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had only what he described to the NIH as “the most basic protection” against the disease. The subsequent outbreak. He said he and the rest of the team worked in extreme heat and were bitten by sandflies, “which gave us a rash, but we didn't know if we too would get the virus.”
But he calmly began to apply the skills he had honed on previous missions to Africa to smallpox control efforts in Guinea and Burkina Faso. He traveled from village to village and house to house, interviewing patients and witnesses. He recalled that he and his colleagues quickly determined that the infection was “spread by close contact with infected body fluids” and was transmitted at a rural hospital where unsterile needles were used. .
Dr. Breman spent much of his long career working at the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, and the National Institutes of Health, working to eradicate deadly tropical diseases such as smallpox, malaria, and Guinea worm. But his first Ebola outbreak, he told an interviewer in 2009, was “the scariest outbreak of my entire medical career, probably of the last century.”
While the subsequent outbreak in West Africa lasted more than two years, the outbreak in Congo (then Zaire) subsided quickly. The death toll was less than 300, in sharp contrast to more than 11,000 from 2014 to 2016. The relative success of 1976 was due in part to Dr. Breman's efforts to analyze, contain, and isolate this deadly new virus.
“He was my mentor and a team leader,” said Dr. Peter Piot, former chairman of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and himself a pioneering researcher in Ebola and AIDS.
“He already had great experience in outbreak investigation and field work,” Dr. Piot continued. “He was a man who combined a walking encyclopedia with accumulated experience. He had an incredible dedication to reaching out to people, listening to their voices, and solving people's problems. I was trying.”
Dr. Piot said Dr. Breman simply chatted with prominent villagers for more than 30 minutes about family and other matters before asking questions about the disease. “He combined human understanding and interaction and data analysis. There was a human element to him.”
Dr. Piot particularly praised Dr. Breman's attitude. This period was quite stressful. Many people died. He was very patient with me. ”
Dr. Breman spent two months in Congo, where he was responsible for surveillance, epidemiology, and management for the mission. He was then sent by the CDC to help run the World Health Organization's smallpox program in Geneva.
By 1980, smallpox had been effectively eradicated, which he called “one of the greatest victories in the history of medicine,” in a Story Corps interview with his son – Dr. Breman, who runs the Centers for Disease Control. I started what I call my “new career.” Antimalarial program.
At the April 9 memorial service, Dr. Rick Steketee, a member of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, said Dr. Breman “wrote a chapter in the book that guided medicine” over the next several years and through his new posts. . An edited textbook that has influenced public health practice around the world and the practice of infectious disease control and eradication, especially in low-resource countries. ” Dr. Breman served as president of the association in 2020.
Joel Gordon Breman was born in Chicago on December 1, 1936, to Herman Breman, a painting contractor, and Irene (Grant) Breman. When Joel was seven years old, his family moved to Los Angeles, where his father painted movie sets and his mother bought and sold furniture and real estate.
Dr. Breman attended Hamilton High School in Los Angeles. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1958 and a medical degree from the University of Southern California in 1965. He received his degree from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1971.
His first overseas assignment was in Guinea from 1967 to 1969, where the CDC assigned him to run a smallpox eradication program. Matthew Breman said the mission sparked his lifelong passion for Africa. He then worked as a consultant for the World Health Organization, conducting numerous scientific tours.
Dr. Breman held a number of senior positions at the National Institutes of Health, retiring from the Institute in 2010 as a Senior Research Fellow Emeritus.
In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife, Vicki; his daughter, Johanna Tzur; and six grandchildren.
“My dad loved helping people and thought it was important to help everyone,” Matthew Breman said. “I think that's one of the reasons he went into medicine.”