ABOVE: Meyers educated the communities around his clinics in Burundi and Zaire about the bacterial origin of leprosy. Here, Mycobacterium leprae (red) is shown invading the nerve tissue of a leprosy patient.
CDC, ARTHUR E KAYE
Wayne Meyers, a physician-scientist who treated leprosy in central Africa and later studied the disease as a researcher with the US military, died at his home from cerebrovascular disease last month (September 12). He was 94.
Meyers was a leading expert on leprosy pathology and on tropical infectious diseases in general, giving nearly 500 lecture presentations and coauthoring more than 400 scientific publications. His son, George Meyers, tells The Washington Post that as a doctor, Meyers treated his patients with a level of care that was unusual for the time given the general fear and lack of understanding around leprosy, a wasting disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae. “When he treated his patients . ...
