- Trinidad Regional Virus Laboratory
The Trinidad Regional Virus Laboratory (T.R.V.L.) was established in
Port of Spain , in 1953 by theRockefeller Foundation in co-operation with the Government ofTrinidad and Tobago . It was originally housed in an old wooden army barracks near the docks in Port of Spain. A large wired-in "animal house" was built out back to house the many wild animals brought in for study.The Virus lab's first Director was the renowned
epidemiologist , DrWilbur Downs who served in that role until 1961. In that year the laboratory was moved to new buildings atFederation Park , Port of Spain and, in 1964, became part of the Department of Microbiology of theUniversity of the West Indies under the direction of DrLeslie Spence , who had been with the laboratory since 1954. It is now part of theCaribbean Epidemiology Center (Carec) in Port of Spain.cientific community in Trinidad in the 1950s and 60s
The laboratory was one of four tropical virus research laboratories sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation during the 1950s, including one in
Brazil and two in Africa.Under the inspired leadership of Dr Downs the laboratory began intensive research programs and made many new discoveries including the isolating of several
anthropod -borne disease-causing viruses, and new insights into the epidemiology of key virus diseases includingyellow fever ,dengue fever , andrabies .Downs headed a team of dedicated researchers including Dr. Charles R. Anderson (Virologist), Dr Leslie Spence (Epidemiologist), Dr Thomas Aitkens (Entomologist) and Dr Brooke Worth (Mammologist and Ornithologist). They worked very closely with other scientists in Trinidad, particularly those at the
New York Zoological Society 's research station headed by DrWilliam Beebe , theImperial College of Tropical Agriculture , the Trinidad and Tobago Health and Agriculture Departments, Arthur M. Greenhall, a world expert onvampire bat s, and Dr A. E. Hill, a specialist in Tropical and Internal Diseases, with a particular interest in Dengue fever.The flourishing scientific community centered around the T.R.V.L., the New York Zoological Society's field station at Simla, and the Imperial College of Agriculture, provided an exciting pool of top-notch scholars whose interests often extended well past their immediate jobs. Much useful research was accomplished in these years in fields as diverse as
archeology , the mating ofbutterflies andfiddler crab s,ornithology , andparasitology .The laboratory also played host to constant stream of distinguishing visiting scientists from around the world, many of them conducting cutting-edge research in their fields, as well as photographers and illustrators from the
National Geographic and other magazines, as well as providing first-class training and jobs for local people.Yellow Fever Epidemic
The discovery of a sick
Red Howler monkey, (who was found to be suffering fromyellow fever ) in 1953 provided the first indication that yellow fever was still endemic in Trinidad although there had not been a case reliably reported from Trinidad since an outbreak in 1914.It was discovered that a form of the disease "jungle yellow fever" was carried by Red Howler monkeys ("Alouatta seniculus insulanus" Elliot) who provided a continuous reservoir for the disease and spread by the "Haemagogus s. spegazzini" mosquito which normally inhabits rainforest regions, both at ground level and in the treetops.
After Government felling of large stands of native forest, yellow fever was isolated from a patient from Cumaca in the northern range in 1954. It soon began to spread to
human s and be transmitted by the commonAedes aegypti mosquitoes.Blood specimens were taken from over 4,500 humans in late 1953 and early 1954, and checked to detect the presence of a wide variety of known viruses. Over 15% showed antibodies to yellow fever and more human cases quickly followed.
Warnings were made that an epidemic was imminent and Downs and Hill began a program of inoculating health workers and stockpiling vaccine. Trinidad health authorities followed up with large-scale vaccination and intensive anti-"aegypti" measures including public education, regular inspection for breeding sites, and spraying of domestic residences with
DDT . In spite of these measures, and the fact that an estimated 80% of the population of Port of Spain were immune to yellow fever and dengue, several more cases were soon reported. Most probably due to the health measures taken it did not develop into a widespread epidemic in Trinidad itself.An attempt was made to totally quarantine the island just before Christmas, 1954, but the disease quickly spread to the nearby mainland of
Venezuela and, from there, all the way to southern Mexico, probably killing several thousand people in the process.Virus sampling and identification
Large-scale surveys were made of viruses and
antigen s in the local population, as well as domestic and wild animals. At the time the laboratory was established there were a number of common but unidentified disease-causing virus fevers in Trinidad, usually referred to by descriptive names such as "Trinidad 3-day fever", Trinidad 5-day fever", and the like. Some of these were soon isolated and identified.A semi-permanent bush camp was set up at
Bush Bush Wildlife Sanctuary in the largeNariva Swamp in southeastern Trinidad and a large tree station was built in the Vega de Oropoucherainforest nearSangre Grande with platforms at 60, 90 and 120 feet (18, 27 and 36.6 metres) to facilitate collecting mosquitoes at various levels in the rainforest, including theforest canopy .Rabies and bats
Dr. H. Metivier, a Veterinary Surgeon, who established in 1931 the connection between the bites of bats and paralytic
rabies , and Dr. J. L. Pawan, a Government Bacteriologist foundNegri bodies in the brain of a bat with unusual habits in September 1931, finally demonstrated that rabies could be transmitted to humans by the infected saliva of vampire bats. In 1934, the Government began a program ofvampire bat control, shooting, netting and trapping, while encouraging the screening off of livestock buildings and free vaccination programs for exposed livestock.After the opening of the Virus laboratory in 1953 basic research on bats and the transmission of rabies progressed rapidly under the able direction of Arthur Greenhall, a Government Zoologist.
Some of the main viruses isolated at T.R.V.L. (new discoveries marked with an asterisk):
*Yellow fever
*Dengue fever
*Ilhéus
*Venezuelan equine encephalomylitis virus
*St. Louis virus
*Mayaro virus*
*Oropouche virus *
*Tacaribe virus * (isolated in 1956 from a bat)References
*"Virus Diseases in the West Indies" - a special edition of the "Caribbean Medical Journal". Vol. XXVI, Nos. 1-4, 1965.
*Beard, J. S. (1946) The natural vegetation of Trinidad. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
*Brown, N.A. 2000. Environmental advocay in the Caribbean: The case of the Nariva Swamp, Trinidad.CANARI Technical Report No. 268. [http://www.canari.org/nariva.pdf PDF]
*Sletto, B. 2002. Producing space(s), representing landscapes: maps and resource conflicts in Trinidad. "Cultural Geographies" 9: 389-420 [http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/arn/cg/2002/00000009/00000004/art00002 abstract]
*Theiler, Max and Downs, W. G. "The Anthropod-Borne Viruses of Vertebrates: An Account of the Rockefeller Foundation Virus Program, 1951-1970". Yale University Press, 1973.
*Waterman, James A. 1965. "The History of the Outbreak of Paralytic Rabies in Trinidad Transmitted by Bats to Human Beings and the Lower Animals from 1925." The "Caribbean Medical Journal". 1954. Vol. XXVI, Nos. 1-4, pp. 164-169.
*Fleming, Theodore H. 2003. "A Bat Man in the Tropics: Chasing El Duende". University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23606-8.
*Greenhall, Arthur M. 1961. "Bats in Agriculture". Ministry of Agriculture, Trinidad and Tobago.
*Goodwin G. G., and A. M. Greenhall. 1961. "A review of the bats of Trinidad and Tobago." "Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History", 122: 187-302.External links
* [http://www.wow.net/ttfnc/livworld/Papers/BushBush/bushbush.html "Bush Bush Forest and the Nariva Swamp" by Thomas H. G. Aitken]
* [http://www.carec.org/ Official website of the Caribbean Epidemiology Center]
* [http://www.carec.org/about/history.html Short history of the Caribbean Epidemiology Center and T.R.V.L. with a couple of photos]
* [http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/surveillance/Yellow_fever.pdf World Health Report on Yellow Fever]
* [http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs099/en/ World Health Organization factsheet on Rabies]
* [http://www.who.int/vaccines/en/rabies.shtml World Health Organization factsheet on Rabies vaccine]
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