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In 1961, a surgeon working in Uganda, Denis Burkitt, presented the results of his research to staff at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in Britain. He reported that the incidence of a certain tumour in African children had a geographic distribution corresponding to rainfall and temperature patterns.

The disease, which affects about 8 in every 100,000 children in parts of Africa and Papua New Guinea, quickly became known as Burkitt's lymphoma. The influence of climate on its incidence seemed to suggest that some biological factor was involved. Three researchers, Michael Anthony Epstein, Yvonne M Barr and B.G. Achong, immediately began looking for possible cancer causing viruses in samples of the tumour sent from Uganda to Britain.

In 1964, they identified the culprit using an electron microscope: a previously unknown member of the herpes family of viruses. Epstein and Barr were awarded the dubious honour of having the pathogen named after them.

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15y ago

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