Dengue fever "interview"

[Jeffrey Johnston]

BronwynandAnna wrote:
: My daughter (12) is doing a project on Dengue fever.  She would like to "interview" someone by e-mail.  
: Eg things like the history of the discovery, famous people who may have had the disease, areas where it 
: is most common, etc.  Grateful if anyone interested could e-mail.
: Peter Forsythe and Anna
: (similar query posted on Bionet.parasitology)

I believe that Joseph Goldberger had had Dengue fever. He's fairly well known 
in public health circles as being one of the first scientists to test whether 
causes for diseases can determined on a population level. He discovered that  
nutrient-deficient diets in some parts of the South were responsible for 
pellagra, and hypothesized that some unknown factor (which later turned 
out to be the B-vitamin niacin) was protective of this disease. This was 
in the teens and '20s, although I don't remember when he had contracted 
Dengue. (Dengue, yellow fever, malaria and other nasty diseases were 
endemic in the South then. Now we're just a hot spot for Rocky Mountain 
Spotted Fever.)   --Jeff Johnston, UNC-Chapel Hill