WEBVTT 00:00:00.830 --> 00:00:05.860 [Health, Education, and Welfare. Public Health Service. National Institutes of Health. National Library of Medicine] 00:00:05.860 --> 00:00:10.530 [A National Medical Audiovisual Center Production] 00:00:10.530 --> 00:00:19.060 [in cooperation with the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene] 00:00:19.060 --> 00:00:27.060 [Workers in Tropical Medicine] 00:00:27.060 --> 00:00:30.860 [Calista E. Causey, Sc.D. Retired, Instituto Evandro Chagas and Ibaden Laboratories] 00:00:30.860 --> 00:00:33.460 [September 1979] 00:00:33.460 --> 00:00:37.720 [Interviewed by: Robert E. Shope, M.D. Professor of Epidemiology] 00:00:37.720 --> 00:00:41.530 [and Director Yale Arbovirus. Research Unit] 00:00:41.530 --> 00:00:52.940 Shope: This is story of love, suspense, mystery, travel and adventure, and most of all teamwork. 00:00:52.940 --> 00:01:03.980 Shope: Of a scientific team who has worked individually, collectively,throughout major continents of the world. 00:01:03.980 --> 00:01:09.960 Shope: Calista, I'm going to say a little bit about your background for the audience. 00:01:09.960 --> 00:01:20.920 Shope: You were born in Florida but as a child, as a young child, you moved to Oregon where you were educated by your mother. 00:01:20.920 --> 00:01:25.050 Shope: And did such a good job that you were admitted to Reed College 00:01:25.050 --> 00:01:32.960 Shope: and subsequently graduated from Johns Hopkins with a doctor of science degree in bacteriology. 00:01:32.960 --> 00:01:43.160 Shope: And we have asked you today to be the spokesperson for you and Ottis Causey. 00:01:43.160 --> 00:01:58.240 Shope: Ottis was born in South Carolina, graduated from Clemson College, and also recieved a doctor of science degree from Johns Hopkins University. 00:01:58.240 --> 00:02:17.660 Shope: After leaving Johns Hopkins, he spent a time in Siam at the Chulalongkorn University and then returned to Johns Hopkins to teach medical entomology. 00:02:17.660 --> 00:02:29.440 Shope: In 1939 he joined the field team of the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation. 00:02:29.440 --> 00:02:39.950 Shope: I'd like to tell a story before we really start today. This is a story I haven't told you or anyone else before. 00:02:39.950 --> 00:02:53.440 Shope: My first association with you and Ottis was in 1958 when I was offered the opportunity with the Rockefeller Foundation to join you in Brazil. 00:02:53.440 --> 00:03:04.310 Shope: This represented a big step in my own career and I asked my father whether this was the right thing to do. 00:03:04.310 --> 00:03:12.640 Shope: And you remembered we visited you just before I joined, and history tells the rest of course. 00:03:12.640 --> 00:03:18.750 Shope: He said if I wanted a productive career, that you were the people to work with. 00:03:18.750 --> 00:03:26.800 Shope: Now, I would like to start out by asking you how you met Ottis. 00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:38.650 Causey: Well, well we were both at the School of Hygiene at Johns Hopkins University and we took each other's courses first. 00:03:38.650 --> 00:03:48.330 Causey: And then, we were part of group that had good times together. 00:03:48.330 --> 00:04:01.330 Causey: He took a, his thesis was on a problem in miasis involving bacteriology so I was consulted quite frequently. 00:04:01.330 --> 00:04:08.520 Causey: And from there it went on. Each feeling very independent. 00:04:08.520 --> 00:04:23.660 Causey: I had promised my professor that I would not get married...which was, by then, somewhat past, worn out, that was a provision for the first couple of years. 00:04:23.660 --> 00:04:26.440 Causey: And he went to Siam. 00:04:26.440 --> 00:04:30.210 Shope: Can you tell us about what he did in Siam? 00:04:30.210 --> 00:04:35.810 Causey: He was professor of biology. He had full charge of his department. 00:04:35.810 --> 00:04:43.590 Causey: He taught in English, but he learned Siamese for his, on the side. 00:04:43.590 --> 00:05:03.370 Causey: He had quarters in a hotel where he had a cook and...private living. So that he really had to learn some Siamese. 00:05:03.370 --> 00:05:18.530 Causey: And he was interested, even then, in doing, well not even then because he had been interested in entomology at Hopkins and he studied the anophelines and the culicines. 00:05:18.530 --> 00:05:25.710 Causey: Making collections and doing identifications and studying [?]. 00:05:25.710 --> 00:05:37.740 Causey: But he wasn't encouraged in that by the University because they would rather that he played golf and had the social life that would be more visible to the community. 00:05:37.740 --> 00:05:47.670 Causey: But he, he stayed on beyond his term, he was two years and then another two years. 00:05:47.670 --> 00:05:57.130 Causey: And then his professor died and Root, you remember, died, and he was very young, and he was offered the teaching at Hopkins. 00:05:57.130 --> 00:05:58.420 Shope: So he returned to Hopkins? 00:05:58.420 --> 00:05:59.960 Causey: So he returned to Hopkins. 00:05:59.960 --> 00:06:01.230 Robert: And you were still there? 00:06:01.230 --> 00:06:05.230 Causey: And I was still there. 00:06:05.230 --> 00:06:17.340 Shope: I know those years in Siam were fruitful because of the, a number of publications, and, then when he was back in Hopkins, what did he do there? 00:06:17.340 --> 00:06:32.000 Causey: He was teaching...courses in medical entomology, and in, both in entomology and in relation to malaria. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:44.530 Shope: And then came the period in which he joined the Rockefeller Foundation. Now if I remember correctly, that was when Fred Soper was involved. 00:06:44.530 --> 00:07:02.030 Causey: Fred Soper was...had headed up the team that the Rockefeller Foundation established in Brazil at the invitation of the government of Brazil, to help with the eradication of Anopheles gambiae, come over from Africa. 00:07:02.030 --> 00:07:14.500 Causey: And he was, at that time, had extended...the gambiae at first was rather localized in the poor areas along the coast. 00:07:14.500 --> 00:07:35.160 Causey: This had gone inland, up the rivers, and had gotten into, [?], and this biotype had become established in Brazil, thrived in that climate. 00:07:35.160 --> 00:07:52.160 Causey: The Rockefeller Foundation established a laboratory with, I think first Shannon, Shannon started the lab, and they asked Ottis to go in and continue and develop it. So that's what he did. 00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:59.280 Shope: Now that was one of the most successful, or maybe the most successful eradication campaign. 00:07:59.280 --> 00:08:17.770 Causey: Well, it was really the only, it was the only complete eradication. Now afterward, they were monitoring the entry of ships and planes, and did find, occasionally, gambiae, but it never became established. 00:08:17.770 --> 00:08:48.330 Causey: They were [[?] the planes, had to go through with a period of sitting there [?]...insecticide...and ships, too. Probably the gambiae had come over not in planes but in boats...French boats, that made the trip back and forth. 00:08:48.330 --> 00:08:57.460 Causey: I don't remember what their mission was, but they were supposed to be the ones that had brought the initial mosquitoes. 00:08:57.460 --> 00:09:02.360 Shope: Now, how did you come to, come to Brazil? 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:08.740 Causey: Well, by that time, I was ready. 00:09:08.740 --> 00:09:11.100 Shope: The professor now allowed you... 00:09:11.100 --> 00:09:39.330 Causey: The professor was gone! It was just a time, it was very opportune, but it wasn't opportune either in Ottis's schedule because they wouldn't let him come back, and I couldn't go to Brazil and uh, marry immediately, there was a waiting period that was required by the government for some reason. 00:09:39.330 --> 00:09:52.230 Causey: So Soper came to the rescue, and he said well, have a proxy marriage, and we did. I was in Miami and he was in Fortaleza. 00:09:52.230 --> 00:10:00.620 Causey: Worked out. Took me five days to get to Fortaleza from Miami, in those days. 00:10:00.620 --> 00:10:02.200 Shope: So you were married by telephone? 00:10:02.200 --> 00:10:22.120 Causey: No, we had a ceremony...the judge at the...the county judge's office with a proxy best, a proxy groom, but all done in legal papers, that was really what it was. 00:10:22.120 --> 00:10:28.580 Shope: Well, I've heard Fred Soper called a lot of things, but I never heard him called Cupid. 00:10:28.580 --> 00:10:38.760 Causey: Well, he did a very nice job. He was always proud of that, too. He knew how to get around it. 00:10:38.760 --> 00:10:43.350 Shope: How did Ottis get on with Fred Soper? 00:10:43.350 --> 00:11:01.490 Causey: They had a good relationship. They teased each other, but uh, Fred Soper was, had the reputation of being quite a [?]. And I guess he was, he had good reason, he did a good job. 00:11:01.490 --> 00:11:18.850 Causey: The whole campaign was very successful. And his, he and Wilson made a team. Wilson was sort of the brains for a lot of the projects and Soper saw that they got through. He did... 00:11:18.850 --> 00:11:38.100 Causey: Getulio Vargas helped too...he was a dictator, but a benevolent dictator. He did a lot of social reform in Brazil, and he saw that...if he approved of a project, he saw that it went through. 00:11:38.100 --> 00:11:48.340 Causey: That all the rules were kept, and there was just no, no exception. 00:11:48.340 --> 00:12:01.410 Shope: Now, the... what was the Rockefeller Foundation's involvement in the gambiae campaign, what was their role? Was this the international health division? 00:12:01.410 --> 00:12:24.360 Causey: This was the international health, the part of the Rockefeller Foundation, the field team in the international health division, was the team that was assigned to Brazil, in cooperation with the government of Brazil, to eradicate Anopheles gambiae from the continent. 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:32.100 Causey: Eradication of a mosquito had never been accomplished and hasn't really been accomplished since that I know about. 00:12:32.100 --> 00:12:52.340 Causey: But it was, it was done with full cooperation with the gov'ernment of Brazil, and use was made of some previous experience...the eradication of Aedes aegypti had just preceded this. 00:12:52.340 --> 00:13:01.800 Causey: And the personnel that had been trained in that eradication was useful in this new project. 00:13:01.800 --> 00:13:07.700 Shope: After the gambiae campaign, you and Ottis did what, you stayed on in Brazil? 00:13:07.700 --> 00:13:22.040 Causey: Oh yes. Well, the war came along. The gambiae campaign carried on for a year after the last gambia was found, but there was still the laboratory and the checking to be done. 00:13:22.040 --> 00:13:43.300 Causey: But just about when, Pearl Harbor came along and the plans were formed to send troops, to send planes through Brazil to Africa and Europe. 00:13:43.300 --> 00:14:11.040 Causey: The. I don't know just how and when the Institute of Interamerican Affairs in the State Department in the United States, but that was headed by uh, Nelson Rockefeller and the uh, responsibility of seeing that troops could be protected from the hazards of tropical disease. 00:14:11.040 --> 00:14:12.360 Robert: What were the diseases? 00:14:12.360 --> 00:14:35.480 Causey: Well, malaria and yellow fever, of course were the big things. And that involved the sanitation of the port vicinity and the living quarters, and the offering of medical help to the doctors and all who were taking care of the troops. 00:14:35.480 --> 00:15:07.160 Causey: So Ottis was lent by the Rockefeller Foundation to the Institute of Interamerican Affairs. General Dunham was the, uh, in charge of the work in Brazil of establishing this, the monitoring and uh, sanitizing unit. 00:15:07.160 --> 00:15:24.470 Causey: We had known him in Hopkins. I think he'd been one of my students. So, he persuaded Ottis and me to...that I should become part of that group. 00:15:24.470 --> 00:15:31.320 Shope: Now, Calista, I understand you set up a bacteriology laboratory. Was that the first laboratory there? 00:15:31.320 --> 00:15:59.850 Causey: That was in...that was the first laboratory outside of the medical school. There was a Medical University of Para, and there was the Evandro Chagas Institute that had been...it was at that time pretty much in abeyance, it hadn't been active for a number of years. Evandro Chagas had done research up there and they had established this place. 00:15:59.850 --> 00:16:45.370 Causey: We, Ottis was to be the...in charge of the laboratory in Para, and I don't know what part he had in choosing Evandro Chagas as the location but anyway, it was established as the location and um, the [CESPI?], the group in the Brazilian government was the Comision Especial de su Republica, and they, in cooperation with this American group, established a tropical disease hospital. 00:16:45.370 --> 00:16:58.170 Causey: Well, that had to be built, that had to be furnished. It was one of those things that took time and General Dunham asked me to do the laboratory, to establish the clinical laboratory. 00:16:58.170 --> 00:17:17.080 Causey: Well, that meant supplies had to be ordered, and you know how slowly things go, even in wartime. But it took time. But meantime, I could do work in training at the Institute under Chagas. 00:17:17.080 --> 00:17:43.200 Causey: And we eventually got in operation with staff from the medical university, the three young doctors [?, Miguel?, and Otalio?] were the first and Orlando [?] was a professor and he joined also. 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:48.260 Shope: Now these people were to appear again later on...we'll come back to that. 00:17:48.260 --> 00:17:52.400 Causey: Yes, yes. 00:17:52.400 --> 00:18:03.380 Shope: you and Ottis also did some research with yellow fever in Brazil. Was this at the same time, or later? 00:18:03.380 --> 00:18:04.620 Causey: This was before. 00:18:04.620 --> 00:18:05.650 Shope: Before... 00:18:05.650 --> 00:18:33.690 Causey: This was in Passos...now wait a minute. No, that was after the war, when we came back, we did, went to Passos, in Minas Gerais, in almost central Brazil, in the path of the progress of yellow fever. 00:18:33.690 --> 00:18:58.970 Causey: At ten-year intervals, from the north to Rio, Argentina to the south, and this laboratory was established by the Rockefeller Foundation as a branch from Manginos, they were studying yellow fever in, at Manginos. 00:18:58.970 --> 00:19:36.160 Causey: This laboratory was a themed study of the monkeys and the mosquitos...the setting for yellow fever. So that Ottis was there a year or two before yellow fever was really expected, testing the monkey population for antibodies...he trapped 2,000, had 2,000 trappings to find out what was going on. 00:19:36.160 --> 00:19:55.120 Causey: Yellow fever did come, eventually, but not actually to Passos. We had to reach out to some of the outlying places. But by that time we had collected, he had collected a large volume of information about the mosquito population and about the monkeys. 00:19:55.120 --> 00:20:10.720 Shope: Now we teach our students that the haemagogus mosquito has a very long flight range. And we also teach them that the Causeys were the ones who discovered this. How did this happen? 00:20:10.720 --> 00:20:37.770 Causey: This was interesting, because at that time there were many theories how did yellow fever pass? Was it passing in the animals it went, that were being driven through, was it the men who, the locals who were with them, was it birds, was it other animals? Was it the monkeys? 00:20:37.770 --> 00:21:06.180 Causey: And uh, Ottis set up experiments to find out...but the mosquitos were doing it. In order to see where, how far they would and where they would go, he sprayed them with fine dust, what do they call this fine spray that they use in, marking the volumes with gold dust and red dust and blue dust... 00:21:06.180 --> 00:21:07.760 Shope: Were these fluorescent dyes? 00:21:07.760 --> 00:21:31.250 Causey: They were dyes that we saw under the microscope. I don't know the fluorescence, but they could be, you could spray the mosquitos and liberate them, and then he sent a troop of boys who went out in certain periods to capture the mosquitos and brought them in. 00:21:31.250 --> 00:21:38.750 Causey: You couldn't always see whether they were stained or not until you examined them under the microscope. And even just one fleck of dye... 00:21:38.750 --> 00:21:41.170 Shope: So you could tell how far the mosquito had traveled? 00:21:41.170 --> 00:21:50.930 Causey: So from where they were caught, where they were liberated, and where they were caught, and the time interval. And that was interesting, too. 00:21:50.930 --> 00:22:12.900 Causey: So that he could show what the mosquitos that were caught at these distant places were some of the mosquitos that...not only haemogogus but [?] and some of the other Aedes could also be involved in yellow fever in the jungle. 00:22:12.900 --> 00:22:14.970 Shope: And with whom did he do this work? 00:22:14.970 --> 00:22:24.180 Causey: This was with the Rockefeller Foundation in the laboratory at Passos. That came after this. 00:22:24.180 --> 00:22:31.930 Shope: When I first arrived in Brazil and joined the laboratory, Dr. Hugo Lambert was working with you there. 00:22:31.930 --> 00:22:32.880 Causey: Was he still there? 00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:33.960 Shope: Yes he was. 00:22:33.960 --> 00:22:35.660 Causey: Yes, well, he was from Manginos. 00:22:35.660 --> 00:22:37.270 Shope: He died a short time after. 00:22:37.270 --> 00:23:11.190 Causey: Yes, yes, he was one of the group that went to the Lane at the time that we established the, Rockefeller established the BIOS laboratory. They had wanted, at the Manginos, they had wanted us to work with them rather than with CESPI. But it turned out we had better autonomy with CESPI, we could work in the, in a more independent way. 00:23:11.190 --> 00:23:28.410 Causey: And he was welcomed, his staff and group was welcomed as part of the investigation. And he did a lot of the fieldwork collection of specimens. 00:23:28.410 --> 00:23:59.400 Shope: I guess the Rockefeller Foundation came to a crossroads during 1953 and 1954. They decided to embark on a new program and this was before I joined. I can't tell you much about it...but maybe you could tell us what their program was and how did they really come about to do this program? 00:23:59.400 --> 00:24:14.240 Causey: Well, there was always this problem with yellow fever that was never solved, and that was how it really was maintained, how was yellow fever actually maintained, because there are no true carriers of yellow fever. 00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:30.430 Causey: And uh, the monkeys and the mosquitos are the active ingredients in the spread of yellow fever in the jungle. But there was more than... 00:24:30.430 --> 00:24:47.180 Causey: Beyond that there was the question, and they thought that perhaps by studying other arthropd-borne viruses, uh, they might get some information in the back door, some way, some around the problem. 00:24:47.180 --> 00:25:03.580 Causey: Because during this time when yellow fever was...the teams would bring in material and other viruses were occasionally isolated...in the material, from the material that was being examined for yellow fever. 00:25:03.580 --> 00:25:25.810 Causey: Well, this interim period, Ottis had wound up the yellow fever in the process and he was for a year studying the effect of insecticides on malaria transmission. 00:25:25.810 --> 00:25:44.650 Causey: That came to a close within about a year, and then he went into the office, administrative...well, that was just a, a dead time in a way and that's when we moved up to the tropics. 00:25:44.650 --> 00:26:03.940 Causey: And he went into the, we did some traveling for a bit and fellowships and grants to universities. Finally, Rockefeller was deciding what they were going to do and the virus, the [?] virus program took shape. 00:26:03.940 --> 00:26:27.230 Causey: And uh, the problem came up to him, well, will you go to Egypt? He wasn't interested in going to Egypt. Uh, other places were mentioned. He wanted to go to the Amazon. Well, they had already decided that Trinidad was the center for the work in that area. That could take care of the Amazon. 00:26:27.230 --> 00:26:40.030 Causey: Ottis said he knew it couldn't, because there was too much in the Amazon, we had had those three years during the war. He'd seen so much that he wanted to do. 00:26:40.030 --> 00:26:46.460 Causey: So they said, well we have eight thousand dollars, if you can, would you start a lab for eight thousand dollars? 00:26:46.460 --> 00:26:47.880 Shope: Eight thousand dollars? 00:26:47.880 --> 00:27:01.500 Causey: Eight thousand dollars. He said yes. Well, the problem...mouse boxes, well, Trinidad had some they could spare. They were going to get some nice new ones, that we could get the old ones, so we got old Trinidad boxes. 00:27:01.500 --> 00:27:20.590 Causey: We had some mice up at Evandro Chagas, old Evandro Chagas that had come from Rio in the old days. Started that colony, start that colony going, finally had to get some more mice from Rio, and uh, that was the beginning. 00:27:20.590 --> 00:27:26.830 Shope: And that was the beginning of one of the biggest virus searches that's ever been. 00:27:26.830 --> 00:27:31.590 Causey: Because it's the biggest place for viruses in the world. 00:27:31.590 --> 00:27:35.660 Shope: How did you know you were going to find viruses in the Amazon? 00:27:35.660 --> 00:27:50.160 Causey: Well, we really didn't know, but we knew it was going to be fun looking, and we knew that things like yellow fever could maintain, the cycles could be maintained because there was such a vast area. 00:27:50.160 --> 00:28:09.770 Causey: You could have yellow fever-producing immune population...but not far away was another population and, ready, and it could, get going, like eddies, circles, there was just enough force that you could keep on going to Rio and Argentina. 00:28:09.770 --> 00:28:27.850 Causey: Just as we had seen yellow fever go. And that that was an indication that here was what you could see. But we put out monkeys. Of course we had to find the monkeys, monkeys that were not immune, susceptible. 00:28:27.850 --> 00:28:46.750 Causey: Could we import monkeys from India, no, that was not possible. But down on the shore there were islands where the winds blew from the sea most of the time. 00:28:46.750 --> 00:29:00.710 Causey: Ottis taught these men that he sent out, residents there, really, that he made contact, to build the kind of traps that he used to catch monkeys and [?]. 00:29:00.710 --> 00:29:06.760 Causey: And they would bring in ten, a dozen, or twenty, Cebus, and we tested them. 00:29:06.760 --> 00:29:09.120 Shope: And these were not immune because they had lived on an island? 00:29:09.120 --> 00:29:25.860 Causey: They lived on an island or on the seacoast there where the winds blew from the sea most of the time, and not the, they weren't getting the land mosquito influence. 00:29:25.860 --> 00:29:29.730 Shope: What viruses did you isolate when you put the monkeys out in the forest? 00:29:29.730 --> 00:29:47.220 Causey: We put out 15 monkeys and again...now this was another thing. Monkeys had been used as sentinels in Africa, for many years, but they were used for antibodies. 00:29:47.220 --> 00:30:05.970 Causey: If they became immune, then that was a sign that they had had this infection. But you had to know what you were looking for you, you had to have the attitude. Ottis decided that he would, he would test the monkeys every few days. 00:30:05.970 --> 00:30:20.670 Causey: Take a sample and innoculate mice and see what, um, what they had. He wanted to get the virus and then the antibodies afterward, but he wanted to get the virus. 00:30:20.670 --> 00:30:44.810 Causey: And so far as we knew, as far as I know, sentinels hadn't been used for that purpose. So when we began getting viruses, one, two, three, and found that we were, we got so many that we had to cut down on the samples, because we couldn't keep up with them. 00:30:44.810 --> 00:30:55.650 Causey: But we sent them up to you to the Rockefeller laboratory and they told us, well this is new. 00:30:55.650 --> 00:30:56.960 Shope: They were almost all new, weren't they? 00:30:56.960 --> 00:31:23.560 Causey: They were new...well there was group A, there was group B in arbovirus, so this was group C, because some of them were related. It was [?] at first and there was another virus that was related to Venezuelan equine encephalitis. That was a virus which you later showed was a new virus and not really Venezuelan. 00:31:23.560 --> 00:31:29.370 Shope: I've always been fascinated because that came from the eighth blood specimen you took from a monkey. 00:31:29.370 --> 00:31:30.970 Causey: Yes 00:31:30.970 --> 00:31:37.420 Shope: And Marituba [sp?] from the 15th and Oraboka from the 17th, so the forest was full of viruses. 00:31:37.420 --> 00:31:39.530 Causey: Full of viruses, yes. 00:31:39.530 --> 00:31:50.240 Shope: Now, you and Ottis developed a technique with sentinel mice. How in the world did you come about using mice as sentinels? 00:31:50.240 --> 00:32:18.420 Causey: Well, we used, in the first case, we started out using adult mice for inoculations for our investigation, but right away, we remembered the experience of the foot and mouth disease laboratory in Rio, where they were using baby mice. So we established a routine using baby mice for our inoculations. 00:32:18.420 --> 00:32:41.430 Causey: And then Ottis said well, why not let these mice be inoculated in the forest instead of getting the forest mosquitoes from some other source? And we set them up in these groups, the baby mice with the mother in the forest and within 24 hours...well, first of all we left them for several days, but we found that they were dying off too fast. 00:32:41.430 --> 00:33:08.800 Causey: So we would leave them just for 24 hours and bring them in, finding that, keeping them under observation and um, these forest viruses were killing within 24-48 hours. We were getting viruses from the mice that had been exposed in the forest. Many times the mother mouse was not...didn't show infection. 00:33:08.800 --> 00:33:31.850 Causey: Sometimes we found that she became immune. We didn't always test her at first to see whether she was also...because she wasn't dying. But these viruses were not killing adult mice and they're not showing symptoms in adult mice, many of them. At least not for the period of time that we needed to get the virus. 00:33:31.850 --> 00:33:37.540 Shope: And uh, the famous Causey hood, how did that get developed? 00:33:37.540 --> 00:34:01.580 Causey: That was an attempt to get the mosquitoes, to track the mosquitoes that were causing the infection in the mice. So in the morning when the field boys would go out, they would put a cover over the bottom of the hood and bring in the mice and the mosquitoes. 00:34:01.580 --> 00:34:09.680 Causey: Well, that only trapped the mosquitoes that were there at the time and they might not be same mosquitoes that had caused the infections. 00:34:09.680 --> 00:34:29.200 Causey: Later, Ottis had a system where...set with clocks. There would be one trap that would be closed at a certain hour and the next hour there may be six traps that would go off during the night. Then he would have the mosquitoes and the infections a little more closely associated. 00:34:29.200 --> 00:34:43.040 Causey: Later that was improved upon with these infections in the cages, in the little houses that you put up in the forest. 00:34:43.040 --> 00:34:57.140 Shope: I was always impressed with the ingenuity that Ottis and you showed. Did you ever...These cages were all manufactured right there in Belem. 00:34:57.140 --> 00:35:19.380 Causey: Well, we had an Indian...he was part Indian, part Brazilian, Portuguese descent, mostly Indian I think. He was very clever, he worked with his toes and his hands and he could make these...we could show him a picture or we could be with him and tell him what we wanted and he could work it out. So that uh... 00:35:19.380 --> 00:35:20.860 Shope: And the clocks were purchased? 00:35:20.860 --> 00:35:55.940 Causey: The clocks were purchased. We [?] to find enough clocks. And then the wooden cages were used for traps rather than the metal cages that you can buy, because the animals that were trapped didn't hurt themselves in the...struggling. They were dark and there was no struggle of trying to escape, which was a bonus for us. 00:35:55.940 --> 00:36:11.870 Causey: When we were doing, we were using, the natural wild animals as sentinels eventually, we were trapping them, measuring them and testing them, and then releasing them and getting them back. 00:36:11.870 --> 00:36:12.920 Shope: You marked the animals? 00:36:12.920 --> 00:36:20.980 Causey: They were marked, and then released to be recaptured. 00:36:20.980 --> 00:36:23.360 Shope: Now what sort of animals were these, that you found? 00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:36.360 Causey: These were the animals on the ground, principally, the rodents and marsupials. We had some, occasionally we could get, by mistake we might get bats, but not very frequently. 00:36:36.360 --> 00:36:47.640 Shope: Now I remember one year, must have been 1961 or 1962, that Ottis invented something that would catch the animals in the treetops. 00:36:47.640 --> 00:37:08.800 Causey: Well, he did use traps in the treetops, too. He'd take, he'd set monkeys up as sentinels in the treetops, and then he was also catching the marsupials and the native monkeys. 00:37:08.800 --> 00:37:11.100 Shope: I remember these were traps that were placed on a platform. 00:37:11.100 --> 00:37:12.280 Causey: On a platform, yes. 00:37:12.280 --> 00:37:13.640 Shope: And on a pulley? 00:37:13.640 --> 00:37:27.010 Causey: Yes, and you could let them down and pull them up. They had to be fed. So the [?] had to come down for their banana or whatever it was. 00:37:27.010 --> 00:37:44.500 Shope: Well, this has turned out to be one of the most, the mammal recapture study has turned out to be one of the most productive projects that has ever been developed in the tropics. We learned a lot about [?]. 00:37:44.500 --> 00:38:13.680 Causey: We learned so much about...the viruses there we could find, that we found in the animals, they were also in the mosquito population, these Culicine mosquitoes that were so common at the ground level with the monkeys. There would be years, cycles, when they were scarce, natural cycles. 00:38:13.680 --> 00:38:19.300 Causey: And the viruses that they transmitted also were not frequent, as frequently found. 00:38:19.300 --> 00:38:23.880 Shope: How many viruses did you discover during the years in Belem? 00:38:23.880 --> 00:38:43.020 Causey: Well I never could keep up count. Well, the kinds of viruses that we isolated were always, of course, more than the new ones. But there were a good proportion of new ones, something like between 30 and 40 I guess. 00:38:43.020 --> 00:38:44.410 Shope: And these were new? 00:38:44.410 --> 00:38:47.300 Causey: New, completely new. 00:38:47.300 --> 00:38:52.720 Shope: So, the eight thousand dollars that the Rockefeller Foundation invested paid off? 00:38:52.720 --> 00:39:20.020 Causey: It soon grew to more, but we never had any trouble about getting enough to carry on. But we didn't use money for the new things that other laboratories were investing in. Our problem there, we were dealing with a country, in a country, where the resources for scientific work were not very abundant. 00:39:20.020 --> 00:39:45.310 Causey: We didn't believe that it was right to buy these new [?] machines and things that had to have, ultra-centrifuges that had to have expert care, because in the first place they couldn't be maintained, they couldn't be replaced by the, or even bought by the laboratories that wanted to use them. 00:39:45.310 --> 00:39:57.500 Causey: So we, for instance, [?] we used a jar of sulfuric acid, made our own dry ice from carbon dioxide, imported the cylinders of carbon dioxide... 00:39:57.500 --> 00:39:58.490 Shope: And a simple vaccuum pump? 00:39:58.490 --> 00:40:11.450 Causey: And a simple vaccuum pump, and then we had a means of uh, freeze-drying. But we had to use a kerosene refrigerator because there wasn't the electricity to keep it going. 00:40:11.450 --> 00:40:17.640 Shope: How did you, in the early days, the electricity was off a good deal, wasn't it? 00:40:17.640 --> 00:40:37.360 Causey: Yes, it was so low, the voltage, well, not only off, but the voltage so low that it couldn't maintain, we didn't have enough light in our labs. We would get these, well, you could buy lamps with lower voltage and then get a better light. But still it wasn't enough. 00:40:37.360 --> 00:40:43.330 Causey: So we did a lot of work by candlelight. And we isolated our first yellow fever by candlelight. 00:40:43.330 --> 00:40:46.420 Shope: Yellow fever came what year? You had an epidemic? 00:40:46.420 --> 00:41:16.220 Causey: '54. That was the first year. Well, December I think, November, December. '55. That was when we, Pirelli, rubber company, was establishing a rubber plantation. Everybody that exported rubber from Brazil had to have plant rubber trees, so that all the rubber companies, Goodyear, Pirelli, and what are some of the others... 00:41:16.220 --> 00:41:40.370 Causey: Anyway, they had places where they were establishing rubber plantations, and these plantations were built on, they used the root stock and then they grafted the stem, and they grafted on that the tree for the leaves, that keep them immune from the pests and parasites. 00:41:40.370 --> 00:41:42.220 Shope: And the workers got sick, did they? 00:41:42.220 --> 00:42:09.200 Causey: Well, when they were clearing forest, that was a sign to Ottis, oh, now we're going to have yellow fever. We had dinner with the director of the operation and he said that he was clearing, had started. I said, you're going to have some sick people and I want to see them. He said, okay, I've already sent three people home today. 00:42:09.200 --> 00:42:23.920 Causey: I said I'm coming tomorrorw to see them. He said no, wait til Saturday. Ottis said no, we have to see them today, tomorrow. We went out and bled these sick people and they had the virus at the first bleeding. 00:42:23.920 --> 00:42:26.720 Shope: Now were these the same viruses that you had found in your... 00:42:26.720 --> 00:42:27.790 Causey: No, this was yellow fever. 00:42:27.790 --> 00:42:29.570 Shope: This was yellow fever. 00:42:29.570 --> 00:42:49.550 Causey: Because the trees were being felled, and the haemogogus was coming to the ground. You see, haemogogus doesn't come to the ground except, well, there might be clearings in a forest when haemogogus could be caught at ground level. 00:42:49.550 --> 00:42:58.550 Causey: But mostly you would catch haemogogus up in a tree, up in tree platforms, and Ottis always had tree platforms to catch the mosquitoes that were around. 00:42:58.550 --> 00:43:12.930 Causey: But, they did have these other viruses they were getting from monkeys, too, but the first viruses we isolated from them, the sick ones that came, the first ones that we investigated, did have yellow fever. 00:43:12.930 --> 00:43:34.960 Causey: And later, we got more cases of yellow fever. And then we were interested in anybody that was sick, for anything, and we would find they had [?], marituba, or something...[?] or as we called it the NVEEE. 00:43:34.960 --> 00:43:44.530 Shope: What other outbreaks or epidemics of disease did you investigate? 00:43:44.530 --> 00:44:06.630 Causey: Way up on the Guama River there was a case where people were sick and we went up and found, what was that virus, it was mayaro, it was also found in some other place in South America and had another name, or it was a... 00:44:06.630 --> 00:44:08.010 Shope: You're thinking of the yiruma virus. 00:44:08.010 --> 00:44:22.910 Causey: The yiruma virus yes, in Bolivia. But um, mayaro was this, was the one we found up in this camp up in the Guama. 00:44:22.910 --> 00:44:26.350 Shope: And I remember an outbreak of oropouche virus. Can you tell us about that? 00:44:26.350 --> 00:44:48.410 Causey: That was shortly before we left. Oropouche...this was a case where one of our assistants, there were several cases among his friends, people were sick. When we went out to investigate we found that, door to door, there were a lot of people sick. 00:44:48.410 --> 00:45:08.810 Causey: And I remember that they...I don't remember that there were deaths, but they were, it was a lot of illness. What we didn't find was the vector, we didn't pin that down, I think we were too late. 00:45:08.810 --> 00:45:16.780 Shope: It's interesting in that in that epidemic there were 11,000 cases. 00:45:16.780 --> 00:45:20.040 Causey: That was the estimate, yes, from... 00:45:20.040 --> 00:45:35.690 Shope: And epidemics have occurred in the Amazon since then, and this past year, the Walter Reed and Evandro Chagas teams that are working in the Amazon apparently have pinned the vector down to Culicoides. 00:45:35.690 --> 00:45:40.530 Causey: Really? Oh, isn't that interesting. Because that was one... 00:45:40.530 --> 00:45:41.910 Shope: That was the one puzzle that you didn't solve... 00:45:41.910 --> 00:45:58.180 Causey: Yes, that we didn't solve. And they found oropouche in other areas, this, the oropouche was among that, the [?] area, [?] and I don't know where all. Have they found it in other places in Brazil, too, in the Amazon? 00:45:58.180 --> 00:46:02.020 Shope: Yes, they have, a number of other places. 00:46:02.020 --> 00:46:12.860 Causey: Away from that area...well, isn't that interesting. That's interesting because Culicoides isn't involved in many known... 00:46:12.860 --> 00:46:20.080 Shope: I think that's the first one. Now, wasn't Francisco Pinheiro involved in this study? 00:46:20.080 --> 00:46:47.740 Causey: Yes, he was a student who came to the laboratory. I can't remember the year, but he was very much interested in studying virus. His family wanted him to participate, too. And he had an uncle who was interested, and then a nephew I think, who's now... 00:46:47.740 --> 00:46:49.220 Shope: Otavio [?]. 00:46:49.220 --> 00:46:50.850 Causey: He's now with... 00:46:50.850 --> 00:46:52.050 Shope: He's now studying with us. 00:46:52.050 --> 00:47:20.510 Causey: But Francisco went up to your laboratory, and it was just before then, or after, he married this girl from Sao Paolo who was a technician, who was really an excellent technical person. And uh, they made a nice team for a while. But then they broke up and she went back to Sao Paolo, and he stayed on. 00:47:20.510 --> 00:47:25.410 Causey: And I think he's now become director of the Evandro Chagas... 00:47:25.410 --> 00:47:26.850 Shope: He's director of the virus program. 00:47:26.850 --> 00:47:41.060 Causey: The virus program in the, in Evandro Chagas. Of course that program enlarged a great deal into other fields, too. I mean, not that program, but other programs became associated, and that became a center. After we left... 00:47:41.060 --> 00:47:43.120 Shope: Yes, I think you started something which has grown. 00:47:43.120 --> 00:47:54.560 Causey: Well, while we were there, it was beginning to get the London groups and the groups from other laboratories. 00:47:54.560 --> 00:48:03.310 Shope: I remember it was a very sad day when you and Ottis left Belem...tell us what you did. 00:48:03.310 --> 00:48:04.820 Causey: When we left? 00:48:04.820 --> 00:48:06.350 Shope: Well, that was 1963. 00:48:06.350 --> 00:48:36.270 Causey: That was 1963. Well, you know it was a sad occasion for us, we didn't realize, we were always felt...tremendously interested in what we were doing, interested in the next thing that we were going to do, but not, not until we got there did we really sink into it...and never feeling regret at leaving, but... 00:48:36.270 --> 00:48:54.890 Causey: Really, pleasure in beginning a new thing. But I think that we were, we were really more upset than we realized, because the last three months we were in Belem I didn't write a single entry in my personal diary. 00:48:54.890 --> 00:48:59.760 Causey: I was just, it was just too much being broken up. 00:48:59.760 --> 00:49:01.620 Shope: Then where did you go? 00:49:01.620 --> 00:49:06.860 Causey: Then we went to Africa. We went to... 00:49:06.860 --> 00:49:11.280 Shope: And how did that come about? Was that part of an organized Rockefeller Foundation... 00:49:11.280 --> 00:49:30.420 Causey: Yes, Rockefeller had decided sometime previously to establish a laboratory in Africa, south of the Sahara. And they had evidently decided that Ottis would be the one who would take, begin this laboratory. 00:49:30.420 --> 00:49:47.880 Causey: They sent him, and me, over to pick out the place, in a way. At least it was to be chosen from Nigeria, Ghana, or Liberia. 00:49:47.880 --> 00:50:12.470 Causey: We had a month in each place to survey, get sera from the people in the various localities and to indicate which place would be most productive and most profitable for working. Well, we chose Nigeria. 00:50:12.470 --> 00:50:44.950 Causey: Liberia was, seemed unsettled for the future with the...there was nothing, no assurance of how things might turn out with the dictator, with [?]. Ghana was too infiltrated with the communists in the government and was influencing the scientific work. You could or could not do certain things. It had to be, in certain rules, their political regime. 00:50:44.950 --> 00:51:10.270 Causey: Nigeria seemed the most possible. We found the people in the outlying districts very perceptive, and there was a little bit of stock in health, in public health work. We didn't know that when we arrived there, soon after we arrived there was a general strike, everything closed up, even the hospital. 00:51:10.270 --> 00:51:30.420 Causey: The hospital professor of bacteriology said you better close up, because we were washing the linen in the hospital and you can't get the boys to do anything. Well, our boys didn't stop. Our boys carried on doing the jobs that they had been shown to do. We were establishing the mouse colony. 00:51:30.420 --> 00:51:46.840 Causey: And we had no trouble at all. But we, we didn't force anything. We didn't make them work. But they realized that this was something they had to do, and they did it. It was wonderful. 00:51:46.840 --> 00:51:51.450 Causey: Then after that, we had the war. And some of our staff had to leave. 00:51:51.450 --> 00:51:56.480 Shope: In spite of all this, you continued to isolate viruses. 00:51:56.480 --> 00:52:16.670 Causey: We had yes, we had our colony going. We had to start from scratch with our mice, we didn't [?] because we got some from Lagos, we got our basic animals from Lagos. But we had to build up a colony that was productive...of the babies that we had to have for the virus work. 00:52:16.670 --> 00:52:36.530 Causey: So we had to start slowly. We started with sentinels, and sentinels didn't act the way they did in Brazil, partly because, I think, it was influenced by the agriculture, you see they grew cocoa and other crops where they were spraying. 00:52:36.530 --> 00:52:50.730 Causey: I think that we were never in a really natural condition as we had been in Brazil. We were too close, always, to habitation and agriculture. 00:52:50.730 --> 00:52:53.610 Shope: So what did you do to find viruses? 00:52:53.610 --> 00:53:09.370 Causey: Well, we were, we went to the hospital, for human viruses. We had access to the clinics and the Ibaden Hospital was really organized well, it had very large clinics of children and adults. 00:53:09.370 --> 00:53:26.290 Causey: We went to the children's clinic, and with capillary tubes collected blood from those that we picked out with fever and symptoms that were commensurate with possible virus infections. 00:53:26.290 --> 00:53:49.120 Causey: And we got viruses from them. We had an epidemic of chikungunya after a while, we had various uh, periods of [?] and other rather unknown viruses that weren't producing much illness but they were a part of the illness in the area. 00:53:49.120 --> 00:54:13.740 Causey: And then we were studying the livestock, the livestock that, the cattle were pastured in the north, grew up in the north and were driven down to the markets, they had in Ibaden and other areas in that region. 00:54:13.740 --> 00:54:26.360 Causey: They had to come through country where the what is it...that isease of cattle up there... 00:54:26.360 --> 00:54:27.100 Shope: Trypanosomiasis. 00:54:27.100 --> 00:54:49.120 Causey: Trypanosomiasis. So that many of them died, but the ones that did come down, we took the ticks from them because then we had a vector that we could study. And we began isolating viruses, which we later showed were present in other animals, and even man. 00:54:49.120 --> 00:54:51.790 Causey: They were not viruses that caused... 00:54:51.790 --> 00:54:55.090 Shope: I understand you isolated the Congo-Crimean hemorrhagic fever virus. 00:54:55.090 --> 00:55:06.660 Causey: We did, from the cattle ticks. But we didn't have cases in the human population and I don't know why. 00:55:06.660 --> 00:55:15.280 Shope: You, I guess one of your major discoveries was the finding of a virus related to rabies. 00:55:15.280 --> 00:55:45.350 Causey: Well what was most interesting...because we were, we had a lot of Singhbu [?] virus in the sentinels, from the sentinels in the calves, cow. And Culicoides was abundant there, and we thought that maybe Culicoides would be a virus, maybe would be involved, but we didn't prove that it was. I don't know, we didn't get anywhere with that. 00:55:45.350 --> 00:55:56.630 Causey: But during that time we isolated from a shrew in this area a virus which you showed was related to rabies. 00:55:56.630 --> 00:55:58.360 Shope: And you had a human infection with that? 00:55:58.360 --> 00:56:18.440 Causey: Later we had two children who died from it. One died, and the other one got well. I believe that was it. That was, that was interesting. And another virus that was related to margala [?], which wasn't common either. 00:56:18.440 --> 00:56:32.540 Shope: What is your feeling about working during a career with the Rockefeller Foundation. Actually, you didn't work with the Rockefeller Founation, because you were a volunteer. 00:56:32.540 --> 00:56:34.510 Causey: Well, I was a volunteer. 00:56:34.510 --> 00:56:35.460 Shope: But Ottis did. 00:56:35.460 --> 00:56:48.870 Causey: Ottis was. It was really very rewarding...because he was given, he was given freedom to pursue the leads that came up...and that's worthwhile. 00:56:48.870 --> 00:56:50.840 Shope: Even if it was on eight thousand dollars. 00:56:50.840 --> 00:56:59.230 Causey: That eight thousand went pretty fast, but it was really backed up with some very good support. 00:56:59.230 --> 00:57:26.370 Shope: Well, I've been simply amazed at the productivity of the team, of you and Ottis. I went back and looked up some figures. In your first four years in Nigeria, one out of every 22 samples that you tested, you isolated a virus. 00:57:26.370 --> 00:57:41.760 Shope: You were responsible for, I think more than anyone else in the world, for the large number of arthropod-borne viruses that are known today and some, soem viruses that are not arthropod-borne that you found totally by accident. 00:57:41.760 --> 00:58:06.620 Shope: But I think this is an illustration of what hard work, and teamwork, taking some chances, not being afraid, and being willing to live your life away from the amenities that we have in the United States have produced. And we're all just very grateful. 00:58:06.620 --> 00:58:19.300 Causey: It was a very exciting and interesting life. 00:58:19.300 --> 00:58:22.320 [Calista E. Causey, Sc.D. Retired, Instituto Evandro Chagas and Ibaden Laboratories] 00:58:22.320 --> 00:58:23.730 [September 1979] 00:58:23.730 --> 00:58:27.780 [Interviewed by: Robert E. Shope, M.D. Professor of Epidemiology] 00:58:27.780 --> 00:58:32.900 [and Director Yale Arbovirus. Research Unit] 00:58:32.900 --> 00:58:36.670 [A National Medical Audiovisual Center Production] 00:58:36.670 --> 00:58:39.700 [in cooperation with the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene]