Bernice Eddy
Bernice Eddy | |
|---|---|
| Born | Bernice E. Eddy January 1, 1903 |
| Died | January 1, 1999 |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | first describing the Polyomavirus, work on the Polio vaccine |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Medical research, virology and epidemiology |
| Institutions | United States Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health |
Bernice Eddy is an American virologist and epidemiologist. She is known for being the first to successfully demonstrate that viruses causing cancer could be spread from animal to animal. She is also known for identifying SV-40, a cancer-causing monkey virus that millions of people were exposed to through contaminated polio vaccines.
Polyoma virus
Dr. Sarah Stewart and Dr. Bernice E. Eddy were the first to describe the polyoma virus. The virus was later named the SE Polyoma Virus in their honor.
Cutter Incident
In 1954, while the NIH was producing the newly formulated polio vaccines, Dr. Eddy's job was to test the vaccines from five different companies. [1] By testing the vaccines on 18 monkeys, she and her team discovered that the vaccines manufactured by Cutter's had live instead of inactivated viruses, resulting in the monkeys getting polio-like symptoms and paralysis. Although then-NIH director William Sebrell was notified, he chose to ignore Dr. Eddy's findings and proceeded to administer the Cutter vaccines along with the others. While Dr. James Shannon, the associate director of the NIH, managed to get the vaccines recalled, it was too late as the 80 vaccinated kids spread the virus to 120 more people, resulting in 11 dead and 150 paralyzed.
References
Eddy BE, Borman GS, Berkely WH, Young RD. “Tumors induced in hamsters by injection of rhesus monkey cell extracts.” Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 107:191-197, May 1961.