Who is Robert Webster, Ph.D?: Robert Webster, Ph.D, is a virologist at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In a biography of Dr. Webster from Emerging Infectious Diseases, an online journal published by the Centers for Disease Control, Webster is said to have “devoted his life to the understanding of emerging pandemic influenza viruses, the structure and function of the viral proteins, and methods for developing new and improved antiviral drugs and vaccines.”
What is Dr. Webster's Publishing Record?: Webster co-authored a paper called “Pandemic Warning” published in Nature in 1997 and had already published several papers on the H5N1 virus by 1998 when most of us had not even heard of bird flu. His St. Jude’s biography states that he has authored over 400 original research papers in peer-reviewed journals that include include the Lancet, Journal of Virology, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Science and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).
Early Publication About H5N1 Bird Flu Virus Still Relevant: In the publication, “Influenza, an emerging disease”, published in 1998 in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Webster describes isolating the H5N1 virus from the first documented human victim of the H5N1 bird flu virus, a three year-old boy from Hong Kong, who died on May 21, 1997.
Letter from Webster to the Public Interested in Preparing for Pandemic Flu: In a letter (pdf) addressed to anyone interested in pandemic flu, Dr. Webster urges Americans to prepare for the possibility of a pandemic, store closures due to illness and the resulting scarcity of goods such as gasoline, food and water.
Video of Webster Talking about SARS and then, the H5N1 Avian Flu Virus: Here are some highlights from a video in which Dr. Webster talks about SARS and emerging infectious diseases to Chinese health officials and proclaims the seriousness of an H5N1 outbreak, if it were to occur. The video is not dated, but was obviously taken during the SARS outbreak that was first recognized at the end of February 2003, and declared completely contained on July 5, 2003 by the World Health Organization.
From the Video: Bioterrorism: Webster says that the greatest worry of the United States is bioterrorism, but he says, "let me tell you, bioterrorism pales beside what nature can do..." He suggests that the United States government install an equivalent of a Centers for Disease Control in Hong Kong to be able to research emerging diseases. At that time he was speaking about SARS to Chinese health officials, but the information is just as relevant for any emerging disease. See Video.
From the Video: Travel Restrictions During Disease Outbreaks: When SARS outbreaks were detected in Hong Kong, Beijing and Toronto, Webster says it was logical to limit travel to and from areas with outbreaks to limit the spread of disease. He agreed with the World Health Organization recommendations at that time to restrict travel to Beijing, Hong Kong and Toronto due to SARS despite the economic repercussions the restrictions had on those financial centers. See Video.
From the Video: Why Were Financial Centers Hardest Hit by SARS?: Webster simply states that there is a lot of movement of people and goods between financial centers so diseases tend to appear in these places. About Hong Kong he mentioned that the combination of being a big city with the entrance of a hundred thousand live chickens and a hundred thousand live pigs and millions of people daily meant that there was an increased opportunity for a virus to jump from animal to person and person to animal. See Video.
From the Video: Can Webster Predict the Future?: At the very end of the video snip (remember, this is from early 2003), Webster states coldly, ”There will be more…there are thousands of viruses out there ready and willing to move across into another host. If, for example, an H5N1 was still to come out under the cover of SARS, it could make SARS look like something, um, rather trivial.”
SARS killed 9.6 per cent of the 8086 people it infected while the H5N1 bird flu virus has killed 59 per cent of the 256 people infected so far. See Video.
Sources:
- World Health Organization. SARS Homepage.
- St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Biography, Dr. Robert Webster. Video: “Robert Webster, Ph.D, world renowned virologist, discusses the threat of infectious diseases.”
- St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Biography, Robert Webster, Ph.D.
- Webster, Robert., Influenza, an emerging disease. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 4:436-441, 1998.
- World Health Organization. Summary of Probable SARS Cases with Onset of Illness from 1 November 2002 to 31 July 2003.