Washington Post
March 22 2014
Albert Z. Kapikian, prominent National Institutes of Health
virologist, dies at 83
By Emily Langer, Saturday, March 22, 3:05 AM E-mail the writer
Albert Z. Kapikian, a virologist who helped lead important advances in
the understanding of gastrointestinal illnesses that strike
populations around the world — particularly children — died Feb. 24 at
a rehabilitation center in Potomac, Md. He was 83.
The cause was congestive heart failure, said his wife, Catherine Kapikian.
Dr. Kapikian was a prominent researcher at the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the National
Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and served for more than four
decades as chief of the epidemiology section in the laboratory of
infectious diseases.
He had joined NIH in 1957 as an officer of the U.S. Public Health
Service and dedicated nearly his entire career to the study of viruses
that can lead to an upset stomach in mild cases — and to death in
severe ones.
In 1972, Dr. Kapikian used cutting-edge electron microscope technology
to identify the Norwalk virus, an agent named for the town in Ohio
where in 1968 it sickened more than 100 elementary school students and
their teachers.
The Norwalk virus is considered the first identified norovirus. Common
and highly contagious, the norovirus is particularly dangerous in
crowded environments such as day-care centers, college dormitories,
military bases and cruise ships, said Stephen J. Chanock, an NIH
infectious disease expert. Symptoms can include stomach discomfort,
nausea, diarrhea and vomiting.
The year after his norovirus breakthrough, Dr. Kapikian and several
colleagues were credited with identifying the virus that causes
hepatitis A, a form of liver disease.
He was perhaps best known for his study of the rotavirus, which the
World Health Organization describes as a leading cause of severe
diarrheal disease and dehydration in infants and young children
worldwide.
“It’s a very egalitarian virus,” Dr. Kapikian once told The Washington
Post. “It infects children equally in developed countries as well as
developing countries. Sanitary conditions don’t seem to matter.”
Limited medical care in poor countries, however, makes the rotavirus
particularly threatening in those areas. It is estimated to cause
400,000 deaths or more per year.
Dr. Kapikian led the team of researchers that created and patented the
first rotavirus vaccine to be licensed in the United States, according
to NIH. To create the vaccine, Dr. Kapikian combined a monkey
rotavirus with elements from several strains of human rotavirus.
The vaccine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1998
but later was withdrawn because of an apparent association with rare
cases of bowel obstruction. Dr. Kapikian continued pursuing research
on rotavirus vaccines, and today two such vaccines are available.
“Al Kapikian was a giant in the field of virology,” Anthony S. Fauci,
the NIAID director, said in a statement released on Dr. Kapikian’s
death. “His seminal basic and clinical research contributions to the
study of viruses and to vaccine development have had an enormous
global impact.”
Albert Zaven Kapikian was born May 9, 1930, in the Bronx to Armenian
immigrants. He considered joining a seminary before choosing to pursue
a career in the medical sciences.
In 1952, he received a bachelor’s degree in history from New York’s
Queens College, where he was a pitcher on the baseball team. Four
years later, he received a medical degree from Cornell University.
Dr. Kapikian was in the Public Health Service until retiring at the
rank of captain. He traveled worldwide for his medical work, his wife
said, and remained associated with NIH as a consultant after his
retirement in 2012. In addition to his work on the norovirus and the
rotavirus, he did extensive research on the common cold.
His honors included the Sabin Vaccine Institute’s Albert B. Sabin Gold
Medal, an honor named for the renowned polio researcher.
Dr. Kapikian was a Rockville, Md., resident. Survivors include his
wife of 54 years, Catherine Andrews Kapikian of Rockville; three sons,
Albert K. Kapikian and Thomas F. Kapikian, both of Silver Spring, Md.,
and Gregory B. Kapikian of Annapolis; a brother; and two grandsons.
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