Janet Parker

The east wing of Birmingham University Medical School

Janet Parker (March 1938 – September 11, 1978) was the last person to die from smallpox. She was a medical photographer and worked in the Anatomy Department of the University of Birmingham Medical School. Parker died after being accidentally exposed to a strain of smallpox virus that was grown in a research laboratory, on the floor below the Anatomy Department. The event led to the suicide of Professor Henry Bedson, the then Head of the Microbiology Department.

An official government inquiry into Parker's death was led by Professor R. A. Shooter, whose report was debated in the British Parliament. Parker's death triggered radical changes in how dangerous pathogens were studied in the UK. The University was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive for breach of Health and Safety legislation but was cleared in Court.

Background

Main article: Smallpox

Smallpox is an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants named Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning spotted, or varus, meaning "pimple". The term "smallpox" was first used in Europe in the 15th century to distinguish variola from the great pox (syphilis).

Death

At the time of her death, Parker lived in Burford Park Road, Kings Norton, Birmingham, UK, and was employed at the University of Birmingham Medical School. She often worked in a darkroom above a laboratory where research on live smallpox viruses was being conducted. The viruses probably spread through a service duct that connected the two floors. On August 11, 1978, Parker (who had been vaccinated against smallpox in 1966) fell ill; she had a headache and pains in her muscles. She developed spots that were thought to be a benign rash. Ms Parker was admitted to East Birmingham (now Heartlands) Hospital on August 24 and diagnosed (by Professor Alasdair Geddes and Dr. Thomas Henry Flewett) as being infected with Variola major, the most lethal strain of smallpox. The next day, smallpox virus was confirmed by electron microscopy on fluid from her rash. Janet Parker was transferred to Catherine-de-Barnes, (then an isolation hospital) where she died of smallpox on September 11, 1978. Many people had close contact with Parker before she was admitted, but only her mother contracted the disease. Parker's mother, Hilda Witcomb, survived, but her father, Frederick Witcomb, died aged 77 following a cardiac arrest when visiting Parker in the hospital.

The rear of the building showing the location of the smallpox laboratory, (bottom) and the rooms where Parker worked (above)

On September 6, Professor Henry Bedson, the son of Sir Samuel Phillips and the head of the medical microbiology department, committed suicide. He cut his throat in the garden shed at his home and died at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Birmingham a few days later. His suicide note read "I am sorry to have misplaced the trust which so many of my friends and colleagues have placed in me and my work."

In 1977, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had told Henry Bedson that his application for his laboratory to become a Smallpox Collaborating Centre had been rejected. This was partly because of safety concerns; the WHO wanted as few laboratories as possible handling the virus.

Shooter report

The declassified official report on the incident noted that Bedson failed to inform the authorities of changes in his research that could have affected safety. Shooter discovered that the Dangerous Pathogens Advisory Group inspected the laboratory on two occasions and each time recommended that the smallpox research be continued there, despite the fact that the facilities at the laboratory fell far short of those required by law. Several of the staff at the laboratory had received no special training. Bedson even allowed a school-leaver to work with smallpox after only nine months as a trainee technician. Inspectors from the World Health Organisation had told Bedson that the physical facilities at the laboratory did not meet WHO standards, but had nonetheless only recommended a few changes in laboratory procedure. Bedson lied to the WHO about the volume of work handled by the laboratory, telling them that it had progressively declined since 1973, when in fact it had risen dramatically as Bedson desperately tried to finish his work before the laboratory closed. Janet Parker had not been vaccinated recently enough to protect her against smallpox.

The report concluded that Mrs Parker had probably been infected by a strain of smallpox called Abid (named after one of its earlier victims, a three-year-old Pakistani boy), which was being handled in the smallpox laboratory during July 24–25, 1978. The virus had travelled in air currents up a service duct from the laboratory below, to a room in the Anatomy Department which was used for telephone calls; on July 25, Parker had spent much more time there than usual ordering photographic materials because the financial year was about to end.

In popular fiction

The Parker case provides a major plot element in the Patricia Cornwell novel Unnatural Exposure. The killer, an apparently respectable microbiologist, turns out to have been a junior researcher at the medical school at the time of Parker's death, and to have been scapegoated for the accident after Professor Bedson's suicide. Nursing a grudge over her blighted career, she develops a new strain of poxvirus from material stolen from the Birmingham lab, and attempts to start an epidemic.

The case has also been briefly mentioned in the TV series House in episode A Pox on Our House. Janet Parker was mentioned by name in the episode, while Bedson's subsequent suicide was referenced.

See also

• Rahima Banu, last person infected with naturally occurring Variola major
• Ali Maow Maalin, last person infected with naturally occurring Variola minor
• List of unusual deaths

References

• Altman, Lawrence K (February 11, 1979). "Criticism Is Leveled in Aftermath of Fatal British Smallpox Outbreak; Debate Over Storing of Virus Laboratory Chief Killed Himself Heavy Workload Is Cited". The New York Times: p. 34. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0711FF385511728DDDA80994DA405B898BF1D3. 
• Shooter, R. A. (July 1980). Report of the investigation into the cause of the 1978 Birmingham smallpox occurrence. London: H. M. Stationery Office. http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc7980/hc06/0668/0668.pdf. 
• Stockton, William (February 4, 1979). "Smallpox is not dead". The New York Times Magazine. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40714F6395511728DDDAD0894DA405B898BF1D3. 

External links

• Book Chapter on Smallpox
• 1978 TIME magazine article