Infection Fears After Germ War Expert Dies

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29892, 4 August 1962, Page 11

Infection Fears After Germ War Expert Dies

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON, August 3. One of Britain’s leading germ warfare scientists died on Wednesday from a mysterious disease which experts fear may have been caused by a Middle Ages plague germ on which he was experimenting, the “Daily Mail” reported.

Mr Geoffrey A. Bacon, aged 44, was taken ill on Sunday and died on Wednesday in Salisbury, a few miles from the top-secret Microbiological Research Establishment at Porton, Hampshire, where he worked on germ-war-fare antidotes. Last night Mr Bacon’s family and all other close contacts were being quarantined in case of ah outbreak of infection. War Office scientists began meticulous tests to find the cause of death, said the newspaper. It quoted the medical officer of health for the Porton area. Dr. Frederick Lishman, as saying: “This germ can spread, and we have taken precautions to guard

against this by isolating his family and contacts. "If our fears proved correct the position could be very serious,” said Dr. Lishman. He said Mr Bacon apparently died from a type of pneumonia brought on by the germ he had picked up. Antibiotics had failed to save him. Mr Bacon had been isolated in hospital “so the number of people who attended him was fortunately small. "Immediately it was realised bacteriological infection was possible we acted on the assumption that our worst fears would be realised,” said Dr. Lishman. Leave was cancelled for doctors, nurses, porters and cleaners who had come into contact with Mr Bacon in the two days he was in hospital, said the “Daily Mail.” They were forbidden to leave the hospital and were being given injections of an antidote.

The newspaper said Mr Bacon's wife, Mary, and her elderly parents were under observation at their home in the Wiltshire village of Whiteparish. Seventy-five miles awaj’ at East Molesey, Surrey, Mr Bacon’s two daughters, Elizabeth, aged 15, and Susan aged 11, had medical checks, as did family friends with whom they were staying. The War Office announced last night that Mr Bacon died “in circumstances which make it possible that death was due to an accidental infection resulting from his work ...” Reuter reported An inquiry was being held. Dr. David Henderson, chief scientific officer at the Microbiological Research Establishment, told reporters that Mr Bacon was a careful and methodical worker and “we do not know definitely that his death was due to an infection in the laboratory.” The “Daily Mail” and the “Daily Herald” were the only London newspapers to refer in their stories of Mr Bacon’s death to the “Middle Ages plague” germs. The “Daily Herald” said scientists at the research establishment handled the "deadliest germs known.” Among these were smallpox and the "plague which wiped out tens of thousands in the Middle Ages.” Mr Bacon, the newspaper said, “is thought to have died of a disease which is so rare doctors do not even know if it is infectious.”