#henry bedson

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1818221, acrylic on canvas, December 2018

Images of Henry Bedson and Janet Parker. Parker was the last person to contract smallpox and the poor safety practices of Bedson’s smallpox lab were responsible for her catching the disease. Bedson committed suicide shortly before Janet died.

Original Source Post

[lepromatosis]

I just posted something about smallpox eradication, but I wanted a more detailed post about the Birmingham outbreak. It was a bit tragic on all sides.

Professor Henry Bedson ran the lab responsible for the last smallpox outbreak in Birmingham in 1978. He committed suicide shortly before Janet Parker died from smallpox. Janet worked above his lab where he was conducting smallpox research. 

From an article on the event: 

The professor’s guilt was understandable. To a degree, he was caught in a race against time: Bedson believed he was close to a breakthrough in the global battle against smallpox. and the World Health Organisation shared that belief.

But smallpox research in Birmingham was winding down and the lab earmarked for closure.

Because of the lack of investment, researchers worked on a lethal, airborne virus without the safety net of airlocks, separate showers, changing facilities or special clothing.

Unbelievably, the virus was handled in the main lab, away from safety cabinets. In the race to make medical history, corners were being cut. (...)

Janet’s darkroom was immediately above Bedson’s lab – as the Professor’s research reached its most dangerous. At the time, he was researching deadly smallpox mutations known as “whitepox viruses”. (...)

Benson thought he was on the brink of eradicating smallpox, but his rush to achieve that goal led to Janet’s death. (...)

Bedson and his family were placed in quarantine at their family home in Harborne and 500 other people were also isolated.

When smallpox was diagnosed, Bedson was horrified. Friends said he was a broken man.

He took his work very seriously and felt he had done nothing which could have resulted in the tragedy.

His home and family were besieged by camera crews and reporters, and the pressure on him became unbearable.

On September 1, while his wife was taking a telephone call, the professor walked out to his garden shed and cut his throat.

He survived in hospital for five days but became the first fatality of the outbreak – killed not by the virus he battled to defeat for so long, but by the panic it caused.

In a suicide note, he apologised to his family and friends for the strain he had placed them under.

It read: “I am sorry to have misplaced the trust which so many of my friends and colleagues have placed in me and my work and above all to have dragged into disrepute my wife and beloved children. I realise this act is the last sensible thing I have done but it may allow them to get some peace.”