Donald Herbert Currie, born March 25, 1876 in
Jefferson, Missouri was educated in public and private schools in St.
Louis and received his degree in medicine from the University of St. Louis in
1897.[i] He practiced a full year
as an intern after being admitted to practice. In 1899, at the age of 23, he was
accepted into the U.S. Marine Hospital Service, one of the youngest physicians
to ever receive a commission. The next year, on May 10, 1900 he married to
Helen H. Hanson in Webster Groves, St Louis at the Protestant Episcopal Church.[ii]
Dr. Currie assisted in stamping out the
bubonic plague in San Francisco and in the yellow fever epidemic in New
Orleans. On May 31, 1909 Currie who was already assigned to Honolulu assumed
the position of director of the Molokai Leprosy investigation station at the
age of 31.[iii] Despite his relative youth, his research work
regarding leprosy in the government leper station on the island of
Molokai attracted the attention of medical men throughout the world. He was a representative
of the United States at the International Leprosy
Congress in Bergen, Norway, in 1909. As a result of his
research, he published a seminal work on leprosy transmission in rats which
proved that leprosy was contagious in that species. He continued his
affiliation with leprosy work in Hawaii until July 26, 1917.[iv]
On December 1, 1912 he was promoted from assistant
surgeon to surgeon based on his years of service and passing the requisite
examinations.[v]
The next year, while stationed in
California, he published an article in the Journal of the American Medical
Association on the contagious nature of typhoid carriers based on work he
conducted at the San Francisco quarantine station.[vi] His brilliant research
was capturing public attention and as a result, the Governor of California
nominated him to serve on the California State Board of Health.[vii] His 1913 appointment was testimony to his
excellent work in diagnosing the plague in ground squirrels. However, because of pressing duties in the
Public Health Service he eventually resigned that post in September 1915.[viii] Nevertheless, in
recognition of his excellent support the California State of Board of Health unanimously
commended his work:
Dr. Currie's extended experience in public health
administration as well as his special knowledge in connection with plague,
leprosy, cholera and yellow fever rendered him especially valuable to
California;… and be it further Resolved, That we unite in wishing
him continued success in the service of public health in
the United States and in hoping that his assignment to duty in California will
continue for many years.”[ix]
Unfortunately his ties to California soon ended when
he resumed work with lepers in Hawaii in the fall of 1915.[x] With the onset of the Spanish flu in many
eastern seaboard cities, the Public Health Service decided his services were
need more in Boston so on August 7, 1917 he was ordered take command of the Boston
quarantine station.[xi] Currie’s brief stay at
the quarantine station continued his long commitment to research on
communicable disease. Unfortunately, his efforts to combat the Spanish flu led
to his untimely death on December 23, 1918 at the height of Boston’s epidemic.
There was suspicion that his death may have been an unintended consequence of
the experimentation that Surgeon General Rupert Blue authorized to be conducted
on Navy enlisted men on Gallops Island. In a devil’s bargain, 118 enlisted men
were told their violations of Navy rules would be forgiven if they participated
in the experiment to determine how the flu was transmitted. While none of the enlisted men were ever
inoculated with the flu, Surgeon Currie was not so lucky. He died at the age of
42 in the Contagious Hospital in Brookline, MA while assisting other physicians
with the containment of the epidemic.[xii]
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