Mark White was the bubonic plague epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when his wife left him and took the kids to the East Coast. He moved to New York City to be near them and got a job as the hospital epidemiologist at Booth Memorial Medical Center (now the New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital).
Soon he and his nurse epidemiologists faced cases of Acquired Immune Syndrome and a hospital-wide anti-freeze poisoning in the water supply that affected the largest hemodialysis unit in New York City. When the City Health Office ordered the hospital closed, he confronted them and forced them to rescind the order.
During a head lice epidemic in the Respiratory Intensive Care Unit, he met the woman he would marry, a Filipina named Budsy Mendoza.
When the People Power Revolution in the Philippines overthrew the dictator Marcos, Budsy and Mark got a job helping the Philippine government to build an epidemiology response unit.
They soon investigated a national scare that there was embalming fluid in fish and many red tide epidemics. They endured six military coup attempts.
They helped deal with several earthquakes and the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991. The largest eruption in our lifetimes. I sent so much ash into the atmosphere that it lowered the global temperature by 2 degrees C for two years.
After controlling an Ebola epidemic, among monkey handlers, an American competitor persuaded the US State Department to make Mark persona no grata and force him to leave the Philippines.
When Budsy got breast cancer, they returned to the US for treatment and then moved to start an epidemiology training program in Uganda shortly after Idi Amin was overthrown.
They worked with Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders, to control sleeping sickness.
Budsy's cancer recurred, and they returned to the US for more treatment. Eventually, she died as he stood by her bedside.
Steve Thacker of CDC hired Mark to be Director of the division of International Health. Mark started and organized programs in nearly thirty counties, including China, Japan, India, Central Asia, and Central American regional programs. Together they accounted for more than half the world's population.
Mark felt Field Epidemiology Training Programs should have an organization to exchange ideas and advocate for their interests. Charles Mérieux funded a meeting in Lyon, France, where the organization was organized.
In 2000, Mark and his old friend, Shelly Ahmann, were wed. She had been Chief of Surgery at the Northern Navajo Medical Center.
They adopted two biological sisters from Ethiopia whose mother died of AIDS. The girls are now in college. Counting Mark's two sons from his first marriage, they have four children.
Mark retired and wrote this memoir.
White, Mark E.: - Mark graduated from Michigan State University's Justin Morrell College magna cum laude in 1969, then the University of Michigan School of Medicine. He completed a residency there and an Infectious Diseases Fellowship at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Mass General Brigham).Mark joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Epidemic Intelligence Serve and then spent six years as the bubonic plague epidemiologist for CDC. When his first wife left and took their children, Alex and Daniel, to the east coast, he followed and found a job as Hospital Epidemiologist at Booth Memorial Medical Center (now New York Presbyterian Queens). While investigating a head lice outbreak in the Respiratory Intensive Unit, he met and eventually married Felilia (Budsy) Mendoza, the beautiful head nurseIn 1986, when the People Power revolution overthrew the corrupt Marcos government in Manila, Budsy and Mark joined the Philippine Department of Health to help set up a CDC-type epidemiology unit. Over seven years, they investigated Ebola virus, typhoid, cholera, malaria, and AIDS outbreaks, as well as mass poisonings with shellfish toxins and embalming fluid (formaldehyde). They were on the slopes of Mount Pinatubo when it erupted, lowering the global temperature by two degrees C for two years, and helped supervise the care of 140,000 evacuees. They endured six military coup attempts. Budsy got breast cancer and had chemotherapy. They moved to Uganda, which was recovering from the effects of the dictatorships of Idi Amin and his successors. They investigated tropical diseases and narrowly escaped a plot to murder them.They moved to Atlanta, where CDC appointed Mark Director of the Division of International Health. He helped create new training programs in China, India, Kenya, Central Asia, and Central America. A year after Budsy died, Mark married Shelly Ahmann, a breast surgeon. They are happily wed 23 years later. They adopted two beautiful sisters from Ethiopia, Leila, and Zebedia (Zoe). Mark retired in 2012 and has been writing this memoir since.
White, Zoe Z.: - Zoe is completing her junior year at Parsons College of Design. At the publication date, she is on a term abroad in Paris.
