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Janet contracted smallpox in 1978, when the whole world was convinced that she had already dealt with the deadly disease. The truth about how the infection occurred is still a mystery.
- The virus most likely emerged from the laboratory on the ground floor of the University of Birmingham, where Janet worked as a photographer
- When the woman was found infected, everyone feared that the deadly virus would come back again
- The media accused the virologist working in the laboratory of not having exercised due diligence and that the virus had leaked out of the vial because of him. The man, torn by remorse, committed suicide
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On September 6, 1978, Henry Bedson, a Birmingham virologist, cut his throat in a shed near a house in the suburbs.
The wife who discovered the body found a farewell letter. «I’m sorry to lose my trustthat so many friends and colleagues have bestowed on me and my work »he wrote just before committing suicide.
He died because he couldn’t bear the remorse. For the British press at that time, Bedson became “The doctor of evil”which made the smallpox virus, combated a year earlier, again become a deadly threat to society. When he killed himself, in a hospital several dozen kilometers from his shed doctors fought for the life of Janet Parker. They lost. This is the last known smallpox victim in the world. Bedson, on the other hand, became a victim of the media campaign.
The first symptoms of fatal smallpox
On a hot Friday morning on August 11, 1978, Janet Parker woke up exceptionally exasperated. Continued from the night before the headache continued. She was convinced that the flu was taking her. However, she decided that this was no reason to miss the day at work.
Do medical laboratory at the University of Birmingham, where she worked as a photographer, Her husband, Joseph, gave her a ride. They were both in their forties and lived a quiet life with two dogs in a modest home in Kings Norton on the outskirts of the city. She was taking photos, he was working at the post office.
Janet’s task at the university was, inter alia, photographing tissue scraps on slides. She also took photos for academic materials, but it happened that university staff asked her for private photos. She photographed scientists at work and even their family celebrations.
Janet met her colleague Glenda Miller at work. She noticed that the woman looked very bad. Both, however, decided that it was nothing dangerous, probably a common cold and everything would return to normal after the weekend.
Terrifying diagnosis
Janet did not show up for work on Monday, August 14. The headache worsened. There was also a high fever and something that worried Janet the most: initially a small rash, but then spreading rapidly throughout the body, especially on the chest, arms, legs and face.
Miller, Janet’s friend, called her Wednesday to see what was going on. The woman then said that «She has never felt so bad«. The family doctor visited her a few days after the first symptoms appeared. After examination, he made a diagnosis: chicken pox. He prescribed an antibiotic and argued that the disease would soon pass.
However, Janet’s health deteriorated day by day. On August 24, doctors diagnosed a woman with smallpox. A deadly disease which, to the joy of the whole world, it had been completely exterminated only a year earlier.
So how did the virus happen again?
- Also read: How was smallpox treated? One of the greatest successes of mankind
The rest of the article under the video.
Smallpox has been dangerous for thousands of years
Smallpox has been known to mankind for thousands of years, has caused epidemics and numerous deaths, and its complications have led to blindness. First smallpox symptoms is (according to WHO) high fever and fatigue. The next stage of the disease involves a characteristic rash that appears especially on the face, arms and legs. The eruptions fill with fluid, then with pus, and over time turn into scabs that fall off.
The virus causing the disease, belonging to the herpesvirus Orthopoxvirus, was transmitted mainly by direct contact with sick people and by airborne droplets. There was also a risk of infection through contact with clothes, bedding and objects with which the patient came into contact. Smallpox mortality was on average 30%., but it also depended on the form of the disease and could be higher. The most aggressive varieties of smallpox even killed over 80 percent. infected people. The highest mortality was observed in unvaccinated persons.
The fight against smallpox took a long time, and millions of people died before it was won.
Janet Parker is the last known person to die as a result of an infection.
Vials of smallpox in the laboratory
In the building where Janet Parker worked, on the floor below, Henry Bedson, an eminent virologist and specialist in infectious diseases, was conducting his extensive research on the smallpox virus.
The scientist, a reticent, thin XNUMX-year-old, was a specialist in infections that was already valued all over the world. He has devoted his entire professional life to researching the virus. Henry and Janet were almost the same age, they were both in their forties, they probably met often in the hallways of the college where they both worked.
The laboratory, led by Bedson, was one of the few places in the world where samples of the virus were still stored. Bedson investigated whether the world was threatened by other varieties of smallpox. He tried to prevent this from happening, but to do so, he had to work on the still active virus he kept in vials in the freezers of his studio.
The pox virus has gotten out of the lab
When it was certain that Janet had contracted smallpox, the best specialist in the field, Henry Bedson, was brought to the laboratory. When the virologist found out about the chickenpox infection, Parker was already having a temperature of 39 degrees, almost continuously, and the rash was all over her body. The woman was transferred to solitary confinement. Doctors also took her swabs.
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Bedson got vials of Parker smears and went to work immediately. What he saw under the microscope stunned him. The virus the doctors downloaded to Janet was the same virus Bedson kept in his lab freezers.
It turns out that this is where the virus that infected Parker got out of Bedson’s lab.
Remorse
When it became known that Parker was a carrier of the smallpox virus, the British government immediately went on high alert. The medics, accompanied by investigators, began searching for anyone who might have come into contact with Janet. New vaccination points were also launched immediately. After a few days, it was possible to locate all the people who might have dealt with the woman in the last weeks.
During this time, Bedson was experiencing a drama. The media, which immediately began writing about a new case of smallpox, accused the virologist of negligenceas a result of which the virus got out of his laboratory. It was also recalled that the recent inspection revealed many anomalies. There were no showers, for example, and vials of hazardous substances may have been inadequately sealed.
Bedson, cornered by the media which called him “the doctor of evil,” consumed with remorse, cut his throat.
The investigation was at a standstill
Janet Parker died after a serious illness on September 11, 1978. How the virus got out of the lab and infected the woman is still unknown. Fortunately, thanks to the quick reaction of the authorities and the administration of subsequent doses of vaccines, the disease was nipped in the bud.
According to investigators investigating the causes of the infection, Henry Bedson made no mistakes in his work. He was innocent. The woman herself could enter the laboratory, where there were vials with smallpox.
Since then, the World Health Organization has ordered commission disposal of all vialscontaining smallpox strains. To this day, the virus is still kept in only two laboratories: in the United States and Our Country.
More vials found in the lab
In mid-November 2021, a researcher at the Merck facility in Pennsylvania was cleaning laboratory freezers. In one of them, he drew attention to the vials that were labeled “smallpox”. According to the representatives of the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention (OCD), the lab worker who discovered the vials was wearing gloves and a mask. “There is no indication that anyone has had direct contact with the vials,” we read in a statement issued by OCD.
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In America immediately there was a fear that the dangerous disease would again spread to society and wreak havoc. The laboratory was immediately closed, and the case was dealt with by the FBI. OCD researchers were also involved and analyzed the contents of the vials.
It turned out, however, that in laboratory vessels there’s no sign of smallpox.
* In the main photo in the article: Janet Parker, the last victim of smallpox, and the University of Birmingham, where the virus was released
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