Feldman, Harry Alfred WORLD OF MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY216•
and the realization that the macrophage, a type of immune sys-
tem cell, is the virus’s means of transmission. Fauci demon-
strated that HIV actually hides from the body’s immune system
in these macrophages and is thus more easily transmitted. In an
interview with Dennis L. Breo published in the Journal of the
American Medical Association,Fauci summed up his research
to date: “We’ve learned that AIDS is a multiphasic, multifacto-
rial disease of overlapping phases, progressing from infection
to viral replication to chronic smoldering disease to profound
depression of the immune system.”
In drug therapy work, Fauci and his laboratory have run
hundreds of clinical tests on medications such as azidothymi-
dine (AZT), and Fauci has pushed for the early use of such
drugs by terminally ill AIDS patients. Though no completely
effective antiviral drug yet exists, drug therapies have been
developed that can prolong the life of AIDS victims. Potential
AIDS vaccines are still being investigated, a process compli-
cated by the difficulty of conducting possible clinical trials,
and the fact that animals do not develop AIDS as humans do,
which further limits available research subjects. No viable
vaccine is expected before the year 2005.
As chief government infectious disease specialist, Fauci
was presented with an immediate public healthchallenge in
October, 2001—bioterrorism. Coordinating with the Centers
for Disease Control, Fauci directed the effort to not only
contain the outbreak of anthrax resulting from Bacillus
anthracis–contaminated letters mailed to United States Post
Offices, but also to initiate the necessary research to manage
the continuing threat of the disease. Fauci also labeled small-
poxas a logical bioterrorismagent, and has concentrated his
efforts to ensure an available adequate supply of smallpox vac-
cine in the U.S.
Fauci married Christine Grady, a clinical nurse and
medical ethicist, in 1985. The couple has three daughters.
Fauci is an avid jogger, a former marathon runner, and enjoys
fishing. Widely recognized for his research, he is the recipient
of numerous prizes and awards, including a 1979 Arthur S.
Flemming Award, the 1984 U.S. Public Health Service
Distinguished Service Medal, the 1989 National Medical
Research Award from the National Health Council, and the
1992 Dr. Nathan Davis Award for Outstanding Public Service
from the American Medical Association. Fauci is also a fellow
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds a
number of honorary degrees. He is the author or coauthor of
over 800 scientific articles, and has edited several medical
textbooks.See alsoAIDS, recent advances in research and treatment;
Anthrax, terrorist use of as a biological weapon; Bioterrorism,
protective measures; Epidemiology, tracking diseases with
technology; Infection and resistanceFFeldman, Harry AlfredELDMAN, HARRYALFRED(1914-1985)
American physician and epidemiologistHarry A. Feldman’s research in epidemiology, immunology,
infectious disease control, preventive medicine, toxoplasmosis,bacterial chemotherapeutic and sero-therapeutic agents, respira-
tory diseases, and meningitiswas internationally recognized in
the scientific community of microbiology and medicine.
Feldman was born in Newark, New Jersey on May, 30,
1914, the son of Joseph Feldman, a construction contractor,
and his wife Sarah. After attending public schools in Newark
and graduating from Weequahic High School in 1931, he
received his A.B. in zoology in 1935 and his M.D. in 1939,
both from George Washington University. He completed an
internship and residency at Gallinger Municipal Hospital,
Washington, D.C., held a brief research fellowship at George
Washington, then in 1942, became a research fellow at
Harvard Medical School and an assistant resident physician at
the Boston City Hospital’s Thorndike Memorial Laboratory.
Among his colleagues at Thorndike was Maxwell A. Finland
(1902–1987), who at the time was among the nation’s premier
investigators of infectious diseases. From 1942 to 1946,
Feldman served to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the United
States Army Medical Corps.
As senior fellow in virus diseases for the National
Research Council at the Children’s Hospital Research
Foundation, Cincinnati, Ohio, Feldman collaborated with
Albert B. Sabin (1906–1993) on poliomyelitisand toxoplas-
mosis from 1946 to 1948. Together they developed the Sabin-
Feldman dye test, which uses methylene blue to detect
toxoplasmosis in blood serum by identifying immunoglobu-
lin-G (IgG) antibodies against the parasitic intracellular proto-
zoan, toxoplasma gondii.
In 1948, Feldman was appointed associate professor of
medicine at the Syracuse University College of Medicine,
which in 1950 became the State University of New York
Upstate Medical Center College of Medicine. From 1949 to
1956, he also served in Syracuse as director of research at the
Wieting-Johnson Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases. In 1955,
Upstate named him associate professor of preventive medi-
cine. The following year he was promoted to full professor
and in 1957, became chair of the Department of Preventive
Medicine, the position he held until his death. Between 1938
and 1983, he published 216 research papers, both in scientific
journals and as book chapters. With Alfred S. Evans (1917-
1996), he co-edited Bacterial Infections of Humans(1982).
Besides his groundbreaking work on toxoplasmosis,
both with Sabin in Cincinnati and later as head of his own
team in Syracuse, Feldman regarded his work on meningo-
coccus and on parasitic protozoasuch as acanthamoeba as his
greatest contributions to science. Among the diseases he stud-
ied were malaria, pneumonia, rubella, measles, influenza,
streptococcal infections, and AIDS. He conducted extensive
clinical pharmaceutical trials and served enthusiastically as a
member of many scientific organizations, commissions, and
committees, including the World Health Organization(WHO)
expert advisory panels on bacterial diseases, venereal dis-
eases, treponematoses, and neisseria infections. He was presi-
dent of the American Epidemiological Society (AES), the
Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), and the
Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine. The AES
established the Harry A. Feldman Lectureship and the Harrywomi_F 5/6/03 2:15 PM Page 216