Hooked on ID with William Schaffner, MD
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I just was looking for something to do during the summer hiatus after my first year in medical school. Back then, we had summers off, and students often sought medicine-related jobs to broaden their experience while earning a few dollars.
B.H. Kean, a tropical medicine specialist, was recruiting second-year students for a study in Mexico City, but I talked him into hiring me. He was investigating the infectious etiology of the diarrhea of “turistas” to the tropics. As the junior member of the team, I was assigned the task of apportioning the diarrheal stools into receptacles for shipment back to the lab in New York. Until then I had no aspirations of an academic career, nor any inclination favoring any medical specialty. My odoriferous task notwithstanding, I found the whole experience infectious.
The next summer, I led the team that conducted a double-blind trial of two nonabsorbable oral antibiotics to prevent diarrhea. The antibiotics and a placebo had been formulated in New York into identical large pink capsules. However, the coded bottles into which they were to be placed were in Mexico, so we had to get the study drugs into that country. No formal arrangement with the Mexican customs authorities had been made, and three very large transparent plastic bags, each filled with vivid pink capsules, had to get to Mexico City. It was decided to transport them “informally” — that is, hidden in my suitcase covered by my assorted clothes. The deception was successful, and to this day, I claim to be the only person who has smuggled drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border in a north-to-south direction. The project was a success and resulted in my first publication. Thus was launched a lifelong fascination with infectious diseases and public health.
William Schaffner, MD
Infectious Disease News Editorial Board Member
Professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases
Vanderbilt University Medical Center