Armstrong – Table of Contents

diseases at the National Institute of Health. The building was designed and constructed as
the result of an intensive effort on the part of the United States Public Health Service to
provide a safe environment for research personnel. The designers planned and equipped
the building to control and contain infections at their source, thereby affording greater
protection for every individual in the laboratory. Dr Armstrong had outlined the need for
such a facility. In the 59-year history of the NIH, at least two workers in each decade had
died of laboratory-acquired infections. In the 1940-1950 decade, four had already died,
including Dr. Richard G. Henderson, described previously. Armstrong also emphasized
the two laboratory outbreaks of Q fever, the first in 1940 (42) with 16 cases and one
death and the second in 1945 (42) with 47 cases that were both attributed to air-borne
transmission. The hope in the construction of Building No. 7 was that airflow could be
controlled and air-borne diseases confined within a small area. However, despite the
building’s unique construction features and the philosophy of infection control, a third
outbreak of Q fever occurred in 1948 (42) when uninvited guests entered the working
area of the ongoing Q fever studies, and one of the workers brought infection home
through fomites. Human frailty and indifference to infection control protocol contributed
to the failure of the building’s original purpose, i.e., to contain infection.
Prior to the outbreak of Q fever in 1945, the Division of Infectious Diseases was
shaken badly by traumatic events that occurred in the fall of 1944. Three employees died
within a period of six weeks. Bacteriologist Rose H. Parrott died from a tularemia
infection acquired in her laboratory at NIH on September 11, 1944. Eighteen days later,
Philip L. Jones, Scientific Aide, died of scrub typhus at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory
in Hamilton, Montana. Twenty-two days later Dr. Richard G. Henderson was fatally