Wikipedia

Nicol Spence Galbraith

Nicol Spence Galbraith (17 March 1927 – 7 August 2008), was a British physician, and founding director of the Central Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (CDSC). The results of his were demonstrated in 1978, when he represented the PHLS following the smallpox outbreak in Birmingham. Five years later he warned the government of contaminated blood products.

Nicol Spence Galbraith
Born17 March 1927
Southborough, Kent
Died7 August 2008
Education
OccupationEpidemiologist
Known for
Medical career
ProfessionPhysician
FieldEpidemiology
Institutions
Awards

In 1958 Galbraith joined the Epidemiological Research Laboratory of the Central PHLS, Colindale, which at the time was part of the Medical Research Council (MRC). After five years of working with vaccine trials, polio vaccine safety, and monitoring of food bourne disease, he was appointed deputy medical officer of health for Newham, east London, and in 1974 became the area medical officer. In 1976 he re-joined the PHLS and as director of the CDSC, set up teaching courses for NHS epidemiologists, and improved surveillance programmes in infectious disease.

In 1991 Galbraith was awarded the Jenner Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine, and in 1994 he delivered the John Snow Society's Pumphandle Lecture.

Early life and education

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Nicol Galbraith was born in Southborough, Kent, on 17 March 1927, to Samuel Nicol Galbraith, the then medical officer of health for south west Kent.[1] He completed his early education at Tonbridge School, before gaining a place at London University to study medicine, and subsequently qualified in 1950 from Guy's Hospital.[1][2]

Early career

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Galbraith completed house officer posts at Lewisham Hospital and Guy's.[1] In 1952 he enlisted with the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) to do his National Service.[1] The following year he was posted to Egypt, where he served as deputy assistant director of army health, based at the Suez Canal zone.[1][2] There, he had to attend to a paratyphoid B fever outbreak.[1][2] In 1954 he gained the diploma in public health after completing studies at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).[1]

In 1958, after four years of house jobs at Brook General Hospital and the Lewisham Hospital, Galbraith joined the Epidemiological Research Laboratory of the Central Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS), Colindale, which at the time was part of the Medical Research Council (MRC).[1][2] He remained there as an epidemiologist for five years.[2] There, his work involved looking at vaccine trials, polio vaccine safety, and monitoring of food bourne disease.[1] In 1963, he was appointed deputy medical officer of health for Newham, east London, and in 1974 became the area medical officer of the City and East London Area Health Authority.[1][2][a] During that time, he continued work on polio and BCG vaccines, and called for a centrally funded co-ordinated national epidemiological service, based on the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), having first published on the case in 1968, in an article titled "Epidemiology and the Green Paper – a National Epidemiological Service".[1][4][5]

Later career

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In 1976 Galbraith re-joined the PHLS after being asked to establish a national unit that could report and control communicable disease.[1][4][6] The following year he became the founding director of the Central Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (CDSC), and chose the Broad Street pump as its logo.[4][7] That year, he visited the CDC in Atlanta and subsequently began expanding the CDSC.[4] As director of the CDSC, he set up teaching courses for NHS epidemiologists, and improved surveillance programmes in infectious disease.[1] The weekly bulletin was his creation.[6] At the same time, he lectured at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School and the LSHTM.[1]

1978 smallpox outbreak in Birmingham

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Main article: 1978 smallpox outbreak in the United Kingdom

The results of Galbraith's efforts as director of the CDSC were demonstrated in 1978, when he represented the PHLS following the smallpox outbreak in Birmingham, attending the initial meeting at Birmingham area Health Authority's headquarters along with Alasdair Geddes, Surinder S. Bakhkshi, William Nicol, and Henry Bedson.[8][9] He transferred a few epidemiologists to Birmingham and confirmed that testing would be done at the Colindale laboratory.[8]

Contaminated blood scandal

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Main article: Contaminated blood scandal in the United Kingdom

On 9 May 1983, Galbraith wrote to Ian Field of the health department:

I have reviewed the literature and come to the conclusion that all blood products made from blood donated in the USA after 1978 should be withdrawn from use until the risk of AIDS transmission by these products has been clarified.[10][11]

Awards and honours

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For his efforts as area medical officer in east London, Galbraith was made Freedom of the City of London in 1976.[1] He was elected president of the Epidemiology and Community Medicine Section of the Royal Society of Medicine.[1][when?] In 1991 he was awarded the RSM's Jenner Medal, and in 1994 he delivered the John Snow Society's Pumphandle Lecture.[1][7][12]

Selected publications

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Articles

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Books

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  • Infection. London: Grant McIntyre. 1982.
  • Dr John Snow: his Early Years. London: The Royal Institute of Public Health. 2002.

Notes

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  1. ^ A post created following the re-organisation of the NHS on 1 April 1974. Local authorities in health were abolished, and area health authorities introduced.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Nicol Spence Galbraith | RCP Museum". history.rcplondon.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Bartlett, Christopher; Galbraith, Sarah (7 May 2009). "Spence Galbraith". BMJ. 338: b1827. doi:10.1136/bmj.b1827. ISSN 0959-8138.
  3. ^ Jonas, Steven; Banta, David (1 December 1975). "The 1974 reorganization of the British National Health Service: An analysis". Journal of Community Health. 1 (2): 91–105. doi:10.1007/BF01319203. ISSN 1573-3610.
  4. ^ a b c d Kirchhelle, Claas (17 June 2022). "Giants on Clay Feet—COVID-19, infection control and public health laboratory networks in England, the USA and (West-)Germany (1945–2020)". Social History of Medicine. 35 (3): 703–748. doi:10.1093/shm/hkac019. ISSN 0951-631X. PMID 36046218.
  5. ^ Galbraith, N.S. (December 1968). "Epidemiology and the Green Paper – a National Epidemiological Service". The Lancet. 292 (7582): 1339–1340. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(68)91831-X.
  6. ^ a b Pollock, George (2023). Fevers and Cultures: Lessons for Surveillance, Prevention and Control. CRC Press. p. 1994. ISBN 978-1-000-94750-2.
  7. ^ a b Stanwell-Smith, Rosalind (December 2003). "Cholera, Chloroform, and the Science of Medicine: a Life of John Snow". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 96 (12): 612–613. ISSN 0141-0768. PMC 539667.
  8. ^ a b Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons (1979). Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons and Command. H.M. Stationery Office. pp. 70–74.
  9. ^ Shooter (1978)
  10. ^ Coombes, Rebecca (28 April 2007). "Bad blood". BMJ (Clinical research ed.). 334 (7599): 879–880. doi:10.1136/bmj.39195.621528.59. ISSN 1756-1833. PMID 17463458.
  11. ^ "Preliminary Report Chapter 8: HIV and AIDS". www.penroseinquiry.org.uk. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
  12. ^ "1994 Dr Spence Galbraith: Dr John Snow - Early Life and Later Triumphs". The John Snow Society. 9 September 1994. Archived from the original on 23 June 2024. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
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