Karl Johnson |
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Karl M Johnson (14 May 1929 – 10 October 2023) was anAmericanvirologist, known for discoveringMachupo virus,Hantaan virus, andEbola virus. He has held key positions in theAmerican Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.[1][2][3][4][5]
Johnson studied medicine at theUniversity of Rochester, and earned anM.D. and completed his medical residency at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York.[6] He then worked at theNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) with respiratory cold viruses.[7]
Johnson moved to theNational Institutes of Health (NIH) field laboratory in the Panama Canal Zone.[8] At this time he was studyinghemorrhagic fever agents. His time at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) subsequently theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, led to field work in Africa and Korea, where he established the first completely suited Level-4 laboratory of “special pathogens” for the safe study of viruses capable of infection by the respiratory route. While at the CDC, Johnson’s team isolated and named Ebola virus in Zaire and was instrumental in the discovery of Hantaan virus in Korea, as well as serving as Chief of the Special Pathogens Branch, Virology Division.[6] He heavily contributed to thetropical virology field.
In 1981, he left the CDC to work for theUnited States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases as the Program Director of Hazardous Viruses.
He has also served as an adjunct professor of Medicine and biology at theUniversity of New Mexico, where his energy is focused on hantaviral disease and ecology.
Johnson is credited with naming the Ebola virus. In an attempt to avoid stigmatization of communities, he sought alternate names that would give geographical relations, but would not directly name specific communities. He named theEbola virus after a river near theYambuku community in Northern Zaire, in which the virus was originally found - the Ebola river.[9]
In 2005 he received theWalter Reed Medal from theAmerican Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.[10] Johnson was the 2011 recipient of the Ed Nowakowski Senior Memorial Clinical Virology Award.[11][12]
Johnson was the eldest of three children; he and his first wife Donna had three children.[8]
