Kent Campbell, a key figure in the global fight against malaria — particularly in Africa, where he spearheaded a groundbreaking initiative to provide bed nets for protection against disease-carrying mosquitoes — passed away on Feb. 20 in Oro Valley, Ariz., a suburb of Tucson. He was 80.
His children reported that his death at a nursing care facility was due to complications from cancer.
During his tenure as head of the malaria division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1981 to 1993, and later as an advisor to UNICEF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Campbell is recognized for his role in saving lives across multiple continents.
In Zambia, where he initiated a program with the Gates Foundation in 2005 to distribute bed nets and new antimalarial medications, the number of malaria cases was halved within three years. The program was subsequently expanded to over 40 other countries in Africa.
“In my country, his legacy is that of someone who significantly contributed to the control and prevention of malaria,” said Zambian public health expert Kafula Silumbe, who collaborated closely with Dr. Campbell. “It was a collective effort, but he was definitely a key part of that initial push.”
Tall and lean, with a distinct Southern accent reflecting his upbringing in Tennessee, Dr. Campbell stumbled into what would become a 40-year career in public health.
In 1972, while completing his pediatric residency in Boston, he joined the C.D.C. as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War. Shortly after, he was sent to Sierra Leone to help investigate an outbreak of Lassa fever, a severe hemorrhagic virus.
“I had never heard of Lassa fever,” he recalled in a C.D.C. video history. “I probably couldn’t even spell it if asked.”
With minimal training on the importance and use of personal protective equipment, he made holes in his breathing apparatus for relief from the intense heat, a decision he later regretted.
To learn more about Lassa fever, agency officials sent him to Ireland to conduct serologic tests on nuns who had previously worked in Sierra Leone. He traveled there with his wife, Elizabeth (Knight) Campbell, whom he married in 1966.
A few days later, he experienced a severe headache, high fever, and excruciating sore throat.
Dr. Campbell and his wife then journeyed to London for treatment at a hospital specializing in tropical diseases. In a bizarre twist, when U.S. officials arranged for a military transport plane to bring them back, a spare Apollo space capsule was included as a precautionary measure.
“Looking back, it’s unclear if I had Lassa fever,” Dr. Campbell remarked. “But I certainly didn’t die.”
With a newfound appreciation for disease investigation, he remained with the C.D.C. and moved to El Salvador in 1973 to address malaria, which had been largely neglected by global health agencies.
“He was outraged by the injustice and inequity of things,” noted Laurie Garrett, who featured Dr. Campbell in her book “The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance” (1994). “It just didn’t sit right with him that a disease like malaria, claiming millions of lives annually, wasn’t receiving the investment, attention, and global focus it deserved because most victims were impoverished.”
Carlos Clinton Campbell III was born on Jan. 9, 1944, in Knoxville, Tenn. His father was a life insurance agent, and his mother, Betty Ann (Murphy) Campbell, managed the household. Originally intended to be named Clint, he ended up as Kent due to his sister’s difficulty pronouncing the name.
His interest in medicine was sparked early on after losing his sister and mother to cancer — his sister at age 5 and his mother while he was in high school.
He majored in biology at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, graduating in 1966. After receiving his medical degree from Duke University in 1970, he completed his pediatric residency at Harvard University and obtained a master’s in public health from Harvard.
Dr. Campbell traversed the globe, from the corridors of public health to remote villages, and back.
“Despite his Southern, laid-back demeanor, every time you entered his office, those long legs would prop up on the desk, and he’d lean back in his chair,” Ms. Garrett recounted. “Because of his height, he seemed to fill the entire room.”
This gave the impression of a relaxed attitude.
“But when he got started, you could sense the intensity building up,” she added. “He was incredibly impatient, which motivated him to ask significant questions and take bold actions to make a difference.”
Following his C.D.C. tenure, Dr. Campbell played a role in establishing a public health college at the University of Arizona and consulted for various global health organizations. In 2005, he joined PATH, a Seattle-based health equity nonprofit, as the director of the Gates Foundation-funded malaria program in Africa.
With malaria developing resistance to common drugs, he emphasized prevention.
“The primary vector in Africa, Anopheles gambiae, is a single species distributed throughout the continent,” he explained in an interview with AllAfrica. “It’s like the top transmitter.”
Two years after the launch of the bed-net program in Zambia, child mortality decreased by 29% in the country, according to PATH.
“To put that in context: There’s nothing comparable, highlighting the significant impact malaria had in Zambia and the effectiveness of bed nets in reducing transmission,” Dr. Campbell told AllAfrica. “That’s all it took. It was truly remarkable. Health facilities were empty during the transmission season.”
He is survived by his wife, children (Dr. Kristine Campbell and Dr. Patrick Campbell), brothers (Robert and John Campbell), stepsisters (Melissa Hansen and Rebecca Arrants), and four grandchildren.
Dr. Campbell retired from PATH in 2015.
“I didn’t set out to combat this infection and disease,” he reflected on his career. “In reality, it chose me.”
He added, “We chose to ignore the skeptics.”
