Keith Dumbell

Keith Rodney Dumbell (2 October 1922 – 27 May 2018) was a British virologist who worked on research and eradication of smallpox.[2]

Keith Dumbell
Dumbell in December 1979 signing the WHO parchment certifying the eradication of smallpox [1]
Born(1922-10-02)2 October 1922
Liverpool, England
Died27 May 2018(2018-05-27) (aged 95)
Cape Town, South Africa
Alma materUniversity of Liverpool
Occupation(s)Microbiologist and professor

Early life and education

Dumbell was born in Liverpool[3] and gained his medical degree in 1944 from the University of Liverpool.[4] Shortly after graduation, he began to work with smallpox expert Allan Watt Downie in the Department of Bacteriology at the University of Liverpool.[5] Dumbell's early aptitude for research resulted in the publication of his first paper with Downie in 1947, describing the cultivation of the smallpox virus on the chorioallantoic membrane of hen's eggs.[6]

Career

Dumbell was head of the Virology Department at St Mary's Hospital, London, and on this position one of the key international experts on smallpox. He was head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Poxvirus Research at the St Mary's Hospital between 1969 and 1981.[7] He was a member of the Global Commission and several expert groups on poxvirus infections.[7] He used the gene cloning technique to copy fragments of smallpox viral DNA into bacteria, where they could be safely archived and studied later.[8]

Following the 1978 smallpox outbreak in the United Kingdom, Dumbell served as an expert witness. Following the outbreak, the British Government ordered transfer of Dumbell's British collection of smallpox strains from the St Mary's Hospital Medical School to the Centre for Applied Microbiology in Porton Down.[8]

Dumbell was among the signatories of the Declaration of global eradication of smallpox on 8 May 1980.[1][9] Following the Declaration, World Health Organization ordered consolidation of virus strain collections worldwide into two high-secure (BSL-4) facilities in the United States and Russia and destruction of the remaining unneeded samples. Dumbell personally escorted the shipment of British sample collection into the CDC center in Atlanta.[8]

Retirement and death

After the death of his first wife, Dumbell remarried a South African woman and moved to Cape Town, South Africa, in the mid-1980s.[5] He joined the University of Cape Town, where he retired. As a Professor Emeritus of medical virology, he gave advice to post-graduate students.[10]

Dumbell died in Cape Town on 27 May 2018, aged 95, from natural causes. He was interred on 6 June 2018.[9]

Personal life

In 1950, Dumbell married Brenda Margaret Heathcote. Together they had two daughters, including Alison White. a Church of England bishop. Brenda died in 1971, and the following year Dumbell married Susan Herd. Together they had two sons.[11]

References
  1. "WHO parchment certifying the eradication of smallpox". Archived from the original on May 18, 2010. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  2. Fenner, F., Henderson, D. A., Arita, I., Jezek, Z., Ladnyi, I. D., & World Health Organization. (1987). Smallpox and its eradication. hdl:10665/39485. ISBN 9241561106.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  4. "In Memoriam, University of Liverpool". Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  5. Frank Fenner (1 July 2006). "Keith Dumbell". Nature, Nurture and Chance: The Lives of Frank and Charles Fenner. ANU E Press. p. 335. ISBN 978-1-920942-63-2.
  6. Downie, A. W., & Dumbell, K. R. (1947). "The isolation and cultivation of variola virus on the chorio‐allantois of chick embryos". The Journal of Pathology and Bacteriology. 59 (1–2): 189–198. doi:10.1002/path.1700590120. PMID 20266361.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. Fenner, F., ed. (1988). "2. Variola Virus and Other Orthopoxviruses". Smallpox and its Eradication. World Health Organization. p. 97.
  8. Jonathan B. Tucker (2001). Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox. Grove Press. pp. 131–135. ISBN 978-0-8021-3939-9.
  9. Rybicki, Ed. "Keith Dumbell: 90th & 95th birthday celebrations and funeral". Ed Rybicki blog.
  10. Williamson, Anna-Lise; Rybicki, Ed (August 2018). "In Remembrance of Emeritus Professor Keith Dumbell". Virology Matters. University Of Cape Town Division Of Medical Virology.
  11. "Dumbell, Dr Keith Rodney, (2 Oct. 1922–27 May 2018), Senior Specialist in Microbiology, Medical School, University of Cape Town, 1982–90". Who Was Who. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
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