Willy Burgdorfer

11/17/14- Wilhelm "Willy" Burgdorfer was born on June 27, 1925 and educated in Basel, Switzerland. After much traveling abroad in 1957 he became a United States citizen. His passing at age 89 on November 17, 2014 is not only a true loss of a loved one for his family and friends, but also for Lyme patients and doctors world-wide who will forever remain grateful for his discovery. We are saddened to hear of his passing and will miss him dearly.

Dr. Burgdorfer worked at the Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Laboratory in Hamilton, Montana, a place he loved and as some refer to as "Shangri-La". After his retirement in 1986 he continued his association with the lab as Scientist Emeritus.

Dr. Willy Burgdorfer is probably best known for extracting the Lyme disease spirochete from Ixodes scapularis ticks in 1981. He was also able to prove that the previously unknown pathogens causing the infectious disease in children and adults in and around the town of Lyme, Connecticut, and the EM rash syndrome previously described in Europe, were one-in-the-same. The infectious spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, bears his name and honors him for his discovery.

Dr. Burgdorfer's sense of humor would often shine through in conversations no matter the seriousness of the topic and it seemed he was especially gifted at putting a person at ease. His sharp mind and warm heart endeared him to the patients he cared about, the victims of a medical nightmare who suffered from a disease he regretted he could not control or eliminate.

His love of his lab and his work, and his willingness to go the extra mile was evident to those who, out of desperation and no where to turn, would come to his door which was always open.

The good doctor didn't hesitate to refer to subsequent work involving the spirochete named after him a failure. He was one of the first to speak out regarding problems with the Lyme disease tests and then the vaccine, which, as he predicted, failed to protect the public and made people sick. He once said what many felt, that he wished his name was not associated with the scandals that evolved after he had completed his work with the spirochete.

Dr. Burgdorfer Quote- “The controversy in Lyme disease research is a shameful affair. I say that because the whole thing is politically, politically tainted. Money goes to people that have for the past 30 years produced the same thing- nothing. Serology or serology plus has to be started from scratch with people that don’t know beforehand the results. That is a shame, that includes physicians who don’t even have the courage to tell the patient you have Lyme disease and I don’t know anything about it.” (Under Our Skin-2/28/07- Interview)

Dr. Burgdorfer clearly loved his lab and the simplicity of it all, reporting he didn't need all of the latest tools or renovations to rustic buildings because he had, after all, once used toothpicks to dissect mosquitoes in the tropics.

In honor of Dr. Willy Burgdorfer and his important work, we've publicly kept track of the days since he discovered the organism that causes Lyme disease. By his own account, he lived a busy, fulfilling life since that time, which, until the day he passed, was another 11,840 days (over 32 years).

Dr. Burgdorfer, a true hero and dedicated scientist, will be missed in the Lyme Community, but never forgotten. We send our sincere condolences to his family and friends.

Arrangements- A memorial service will be held at 3:00 p.m. Saturday at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Hamilton. Private family urn placement will take place at Riverview Cemetery in Hamilton.

Laboratory of Human Bacterial Pathogenesis- Emergent Bacterial Pathogens Section

Willy Burgdorfer, Ph.D., Scientist Emeritus

Born and educated in Basel, Switzerland, Willy Burgdorfer earned his Ph.D. in zoology, parasitology, and bacteriology from the University and from the Swiss Tropical Institute in Basel. As a research subject for his thesis he chose to study the development of the African relapsing fever spirochete, Borrelia duttonii in its tick vector Ornitnodoros moubata, and to evaluate this tick's efficiency in transmitting spirochetes during feeding on animal hosts.

During his college years he was a member of a research team investigating outbreaks of Q fever in various parts of Switzerland and became interested in similar research activities carried out at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory (RML) in Hamilton, Montana. He joined RML in 1952, as a Research Fellow, and later became a Research Associate in the USPHS's Visiting Scientist Program.

In 1957, he became a U.S. citizen and shortly thereafter joined the RML staff as a Medical Entomologist.

Dr. Burgdorfer's research concerned the interactions between animal and human disease agents and their transmitting photo of Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme disease arthropod vectors, particularly ticks, fleas and mosquitoes.

His research contributions are published in more than 225 papers and books, and cover a wide field of investigations including those on relapsing fevers, plague, tularemia, Colorado tick fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and other bacterial and viral diseases.

Dr. Burgdorfer gained world-wide recognition for his 1981 discovery of a tick-borne spirochete as the long-sought cause of Lyme disease and related disorders in the U.S. and Europe. The agent was named after him—Borrelia burgdorferi.

Throughout his career, Dr. Burgdorfer participated in a number of WHO and other health organization-sponsored seminars and congresses. From 1967-1972, he served as Associate Member on the Rickettsial Commission of the Armed Forces Epidemiology Board. For several years (1968-1971) he was also Co-Project Officer of the PL 480-sponsored Research Project on Rickettsial Zoonoses in Egypt and adjacent areas, and from 1979 to 1986, he directed the WHO-sponsored Reference Center for Rickettsial Diseases at RML.

Honors and special recognition for Dr. Burgdorfer's scientific contributions include:

* Schaudinn-Hoffman Plaque (1985, German Society of Dermatologists)

* Robert Koch Gold Medal (1988 Berlin, Germany)

* Bristol Award (1989, Infectious Diseases Society of America)

* Walter Reed Medal (1990, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene)

* Doctor Medicina Honoris Causa (1986, University of Bern, Switzerland; 1991, University of Marseille, France)

* Honorary Degrees of Science (1990, Montana State University; 1994, Ohio State University).

Although retired since 1986, Dr. Burgdorfer continued his association with the Rocky Mountain Laboratories' Laboratory of Human Bacterial Pathogenesis as Scientist Emeritus.

Selected Publications

Burgdorfer, W. Analyse des Infektionsverlaufes bei Ornithodoros moubata (Murray) unter Berucksichtigund der naturlichen Uebertragund von Sprirochaeta duttoni. Acta Trop. 8:193-262, 1951.

Burgdorfer, W. and Ekland C. M. Studies on the ecology of Colorado tick fever virus in western Montana. Amer. J. Hyg. 69:127-137, 1959.

Burgdorfer, W. Evaluation of the fluorescent antibody technique for the detection of Rocky Mountain spotted fever rickettssiae in various tissues. Path. Microbiol. (Switzerland) 24 (Suppl.) 27-39, 1961.

Burgdorfer, W. Hemolymph test. A technique for detection of rickettsiae in ticks, Amer. J. Trop. Med. 19:1010-1014, 1970.

Burgdorfer, W., Barbour, A. G., Hayes, S. F., Benach, J. L., Grunwaldt E., and Davis, J. P. Lyme disease — a tick-borne spirochetosis? Science 216:1317-1319, 1982.

Burgdorfer, W. Discovery of the Lyme disease spirochete and its relation to tick vectors. Yale J. Biol. Med. 57:518-520, 1984.

Burgdorfer, W. How the discovery of Borrelia burgdorferi came about. Clin. Dermatol. 11:335-338, 1993.

Burgdorfer, W. Arthropod-Borne Spirochetoses. A Historical Perspective, Editorial, Eur. J. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. 201: 1-5, 2001.

http://sci.tech-archive.net/Archive/sci.med.diseases.lyme/2006-03/msg00615.html

Under Our Skin Interview- February 28, 2007

http://underourskin.com/news/lyme-discoverer-willy-burgdorfer-breaks-silence-heated-controversy