- Email: [email protected]
Robert E Shope
OBITUARY
University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston
Obituary
Robert E Shope Epidemiologist who sounded an early warning about emerging infectious diseases; led arbovirus and epidemiology efforts at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, TX, USA. Born Feb 21, 1929, in Princeton, NJ, USA; died in Galveston on Jan 19, 2004, of complications after receiving a lung transplant for pulmonary fibrosis, aged 74 years.
obert Shope was an outspoken and recognised epidemiologist who, long before others had turned attention to the problem, sounded a warning on emerging infectious diseases. He and Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg and Stanley C Oaks edited Emerging Infections: Microbial Threats to Health in the United States, published in 1992. “That book got people’s attention and was the beginning of the interest in emerging diseases”, said Robert Tesh, who worked with Shope at Yale University School of Medicine and then at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston. “After that everyone got interested.” At a press conference announcing the book, Shope said: “The medical community and society at large have tended to view acute infectious diseases as a problem of the past. But that assumption is wrong. We claimed victory too soon.” That the problem was worsening was a theme he sounded repeatedly in the 1990s at US Congressional hearings and elsewhere. “We should not anticipate a quick fix to the continued emergence of infectious diseases”, Shope said at a US Senate hearing in 1995. “The factors behind emergence—urbanisation, population growth, human behaviour, industrialisation and changes in food processing, international travel, deforestation and invasion of the forests, microbial change especially in response to increased use of antibiotics, and the breakdown of public health procedures—will probably continue. Therefore, we are challenged to develop early detection and responses, and to do basic research on the mechanisms of emergence, persistence, transmission, and transport of infectious agents and their vectors.” Shope was best known for his work on dengue, according to Stephen Morse, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA, but made contributions in a number of areas such as the development of ProMED— the Program for Monitoring Infectious Diseases—and global surveillance in general. “We talk about integrating the laboratory and
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Ivan Oransky e-mail: [email protected]
the epidemiological and being able to think broadly about the evolutionary issues as well as the specifics and I think he exemplified that approach to a great degree”, Morse told The Lancet. “He was a walking encyclopaedia on the arbovirus catalogue”, said Charles Calisher, professor of microbiology at Colorado State University, adding that Shope was conversant with even the most obscure viruses. Shope earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology from Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) in 1951 and a medical degree from Cornell’s medical school in 1954. He completed his internship at Yale’s Grace-New Haven Hospital in 1955, then spent 2 years working in US Army laboratories at Fort Detrick, MD, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. From 1958 to 1974, he was a staff member of the Rockefeller Foundation, and from 1959 to 1965 worked at the Belem Virus Laboratory in Belem, Brazil, where he was director. Shope spent 30 years at Yale University School of Medicine, beginning in 1965. He was director of the arbovirus research unit, head of the division of infectious disease epidemiology, and professor of epidemiology. At Yale, the school of public health is part of the medical school. “He always used to say that it was all backwards, that schools of medicine should be in schools of public health”, Tesh said. In 1995, Shope took early retirement from Yale and went with Tesh—and the arbovirus collection—to UTMB. He spearheaded a successful US$3·7 million grant proposal for bioterrorism countermeasures, and eventually held the John S Dunn Distinguished Chair in Biodefense. In November, 2003, the university named a new laboratory after him. Shope is remembered by colleagues for his remarkable generosity, often spending hours demonstrating techniques and offering advice. “He would always have time to talk to people, whether they were the minister of health of Saudi Arabia or a student who needed help”, Tesh said. Shope is survived by his wife, two daughters, two sons, two brothers, a sister, and six grandchildren.
THE LANCET • Vol 363 • March 27, 2004 • www.thelancet.com
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet.
1081
University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston
Obituary
Robert E Shope Epidemiologist who sounded an early warning about emerging infectious diseases; led arbovirus and epidemiology efforts at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, TX, USA. Born Feb 21, 1929, in Princeton, NJ, USA; died in Galveston on Jan 19, 2004, of complications after receiving a lung transplant for pulmonary fibrosis, aged 74 years.
obert Shope was an outspoken and recognised epidemiologist who, long before others had turned attention to the problem, sounded a warning on emerging infectious diseases. He and Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg and Stanley C Oaks edited Emerging Infections: Microbial Threats to Health in the United States, published in 1992. “That book got people’s attention and was the beginning of the interest in emerging diseases”, said Robert Tesh, who worked with Shope at Yale University School of Medicine and then at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston. “After that everyone got interested.” At a press conference announcing the book, Shope said: “The medical community and society at large have tended to view acute infectious diseases as a problem of the past. But that assumption is wrong. We claimed victory too soon.” That the problem was worsening was a theme he sounded repeatedly in the 1990s at US Congressional hearings and elsewhere. “We should not anticipate a quick fix to the continued emergence of infectious diseases”, Shope said at a US Senate hearing in 1995. “The factors behind emergence—urbanisation, population growth, human behaviour, industrialisation and changes in food processing, international travel, deforestation and invasion of the forests, microbial change especially in response to increased use of antibiotics, and the breakdown of public health procedures—will probably continue. Therefore, we are challenged to develop early detection and responses, and to do basic research on the mechanisms of emergence, persistence, transmission, and transport of infectious agents and their vectors.” Shope was best known for his work on dengue, according to Stephen Morse, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA, but made contributions in a number of areas such as the development of ProMED— the Program for Monitoring Infectious Diseases—and global surveillance in general. “We talk about integrating the laboratory and
R
Ivan Oransky e-mail: [email protected]
the epidemiological and being able to think broadly about the evolutionary issues as well as the specifics and I think he exemplified that approach to a great degree”, Morse told The Lancet. “He was a walking encyclopaedia on the arbovirus catalogue”, said Charles Calisher, professor of microbiology at Colorado State University, adding that Shope was conversant with even the most obscure viruses. Shope earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology from Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) in 1951 and a medical degree from Cornell’s medical school in 1954. He completed his internship at Yale’s Grace-New Haven Hospital in 1955, then spent 2 years working in US Army laboratories at Fort Detrick, MD, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. From 1958 to 1974, he was a staff member of the Rockefeller Foundation, and from 1959 to 1965 worked at the Belem Virus Laboratory in Belem, Brazil, where he was director. Shope spent 30 years at Yale University School of Medicine, beginning in 1965. He was director of the arbovirus research unit, head of the division of infectious disease epidemiology, and professor of epidemiology. At Yale, the school of public health is part of the medical school. “He always used to say that it was all backwards, that schools of medicine should be in schools of public health”, Tesh said. In 1995, Shope took early retirement from Yale and went with Tesh—and the arbovirus collection—to UTMB. He spearheaded a successful US$3·7 million grant proposal for bioterrorism countermeasures, and eventually held the John S Dunn Distinguished Chair in Biodefense. In November, 2003, the university named a new laboratory after him. Shope is remembered by colleagues for his remarkable generosity, often spending hours demonstrating techniques and offering advice. “He would always have time to talk to people, whether they were the minister of health of Saudi Arabia or a student who needed help”, Tesh said. Shope is survived by his wife, two daughters, two sons, two brothers, a sister, and six grandchildren.
THE LANCET • Vol 363 • March 27, 2004 • www.thelancet.com
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet.
1081