Joel Breman (December 1, 1936 – April 6, 2024) was an American epidemiologist who worked for the US

Centers for Disease Control The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and is headquartered in Atlanta, ...

(CDC), the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

(WHO) and became president of the

American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) is an Arlington, Virginia-based non-profit organization of scientists, clinicians, students and program professionals whose longstanding mission is to promote global health through the ...

. He led efforts to control

botulism Botulism is a rare and potentially fatal illness caused by botulinum toxin, which is produced by the bacterium ''Clostridium botulinum''. The disease begins with weakness, blurred vision, Fatigue (medical), feeling tired, and trouble speaking. ...

ebola Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after in ...

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

and

emerging infectious disease An emerging infectious disease (EID) refer to infectious diseases that have either newly appeared in a population or have existed but are rapidly increasing in incidence, geographic range, or severity due to factors such as environmental change ...

Early life and education

Joel Gordon Breman was born on December 1, 1936, in Chicago, but grew up in Los Angeles. He attended the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

, where he was a member of the varsity crew team. After graduating in the late 1950s, he became an artillery officer before going on to attend the University of Southern California (USC) School of Medicine, graduating in 1965. He completed a residency in

internal medicine Internal medicine, also known as general medicine in Commonwealth nations, is a medical specialty for medical doctors focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in adults. Its namesake stems from "treatment of diseases of ...

Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center Los Angeles General Medical Center (also known as LA General and formerly known as Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center, County/USC, County General or by the abbreviation LAC+USC) is a 600-bed public teaching hospital located at 2051 Marengo St ...

, followed by a fellowship in

Infectious diseases infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dise ...

Boston City Hospital The Boston City Hospital (1864–1996), in Boston, Massachusetts, was a public hospital located in the South End. It was "intended for the use and comfort of poor patients, to whom medical care will be provided at the expense of the city, and ...

, the latter of which was supported by a

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the National public health institutes, national public health agency of the United States. It is a Federal agencies of the United States, United States federal agency under the United S ...

(CDC) career development award. He later earned a diploma in public health from the

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a public university, public research university in Bloomsbury, central London, and a constituent college, member institution of the University of London that specialises in public hea ...

Career

After graduating, Breman first worked for the CDC in Michigan, where he led the response to the country's, at the time, worst

outbreak. He was later moved to Guinea to support efforts on

eradication. In early 1976, he returned to Michigan to settle with his family. However, in October, the CDC asked him to investigate a viral outbreak in

Zaire Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was the name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1971 to 18 May 1997. Located in Central Africa, it was, by area, the third-largest country in Africa after Sudan and Algeria, and the 11th-la ...

. There, he was part of the team which discovered

Ebola Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after in ...

and responded to the first Ebola pandemic in the country. The outbreak was so severe that the pilots that dropped them off in the remote area of the epidemic did not expect to see them return alive. The team concluded that the disease was transmitted from close contact with infected body fluids and that a rural hospital that used unsterilized needles had propagated the disease. He was working for the

(WHO) in Geneva in 1980, when smallpox was officially declared eradicated. At the WHO he also oversaw research on

mpox Mpox (, ; formerly known as monkeypox) is an infectious viral disease that can occur in humans and other animals. Symptoms include a rash that forms blisters and then crusts over, fever, and swollen lymph nodes. The illness is usually mild, ...

. In the 1980s, Breman returned to the CDC, where he was chief of the epidemiology and control activities in the Malaria Branch. While there, he oversaw research between the CDC and 15 countries in Africa regarding pregnancy-associated malaria,

antimalarial medication Antimalarial medications or simply antimalarials are a type of antiparasitic chemical agent, often natural product, naturally derived, that can be used to treat or to prevent malaria, in the latter case, most often aiming at two susceptible target ...

insecticide-treated mosquito net A mosquito net is a type of meshed curtain or cloth that is circumferentially draped over a bed or a sleeping area to offer the sleeper Personal protective equipment, barrier protection against insect bites and stings, bites and stings from ...

s. In 1993, Breman became the associate director of the

National Vaccine Program Office The National Vaccine Program Office (NVPO) is an office of the United States Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the US fed ...

in Washington, D.C. In 1995, he joined the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

's Fogarty International Center, where he oversaw the formation of a research program investigating

s. While in Washington, D.C., Breman taught classes at the Milken Institute School of Public Health. By 2020, he was president of the

, and led the organization through the first year of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Breman's first academic paper was published in 1969; his final paper was published in October 2023. As of 2018, Breman had published over 195 scientific articles and book chapters. He was also working on a textbook, ''The Principles and Practice of Disease Eradication'', and a memoir in 2023.

Personal life and death

Breman and his wife, Vicki, had two children. He was Jewish. Joel Breman died from kidney cancer in

Chevy Chase, Maryland Chevy Chase () is the colloquial name of an area that includes a town, several incorporated villages, and an unincorporated census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland; and one adjoining neighborhood in northwest Washington, D ...

, on April 6, 2024, at age 87. Per his wishes, he had a funeral which was "more celebratory than mournful". The procession of his body out of the synagogue featured musicians playing ''

Amazing Grace "Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn written in 1772 and published in 1779 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (1725–1807). It is possibly the most sung and most recorded hymn in the world, and especially popular in the Unit ...

'' on tuba, drum, trumpet, clarinet, and accordion.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Breman, Joel 1936 births 2024 deaths 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American scientists 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American scientists Alumni of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine American epidemiologists Centers for Disease Control and Prevention people Deaths from cancer in Maryland Deaths from kidney cancer in the United States Ebola researchers Jewish American scientists Scientists from Los Angeles Smallpox eradication University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of Southern California alumni