Global InformationAlasdair Macintosh Geddes information
Alasdair Macintosh Geddes CBE | |
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| Born | 14 May 1934 Fortrose, Scotland |
| Died | 9 April 2024 (aged 89) |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | University of Edinburgh |
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| Medical career | |
| Profession | Emeritus Professor of Infectious Diseases |
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Alasdair Macintosh Geddes CBE (14 May 1934 – 9 April 2024) was a British medical doctor who was Professor of Infection at the University of Birmingham Medical School. In 1978, as the World Health Organization (WHO) was shortly to announce that the world's last case of smallpox had occurred a year earlier in Somalia, Geddes diagnosed a British woman with the disease in Birmingham, England. She was found to be the index case of the outbreak and became the world's last reported fatality due to the disease, five years after he had gained experience on the frontline of the WHO's smallpox eradication programme in Bangladesh in 1973.
His early research included work on drug discovery and antibiotics, and the definitions and management of bacterial meningitis and pneumococcal disease. In 1975, he became Chairman of the first editorial board of the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. In the same year he was co-editor of the best seller book titled Control of Hospital Infection, later known as Ayliffe's Control of Healthcare-Associated Infection: A Practical Handbook.
Following the September 11 attacks, Geddes became an adviser on bioterrorism for the UK's Department of Health, his chief role being in the national smallpox plan and in biodefence training. In 2015, he retired from his position as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, having served the journal for the previous 10 years. His recollections of smallpox in Birmingham inspired Mark Pallen to write The Last Days of Smallpox: Tragedy in Birmingham, published in 2018.