Lumen Summer 2013 - Flipbook - Page 10
story by Ben Osborne
Distinguished
Alumni Award
To the Fore
Attending graduation ceremonies in Bonython Hall –
in very different capacities – bookends the remarkable
50-year career of Professor Michael Alpers AO.
P
rofessor Alpers has received a
Distinguished Alumni Award for his
outstanding contribution nationally
and internationally in the field of medical
research.
He received an honorary doctorate
from the University at its September
graduations, and also gave the occasional
address.
Prior to this year, the last time he was in
Bonython Hall was 1961, to graduate with
an MBBS (he also has a BSc, awarded
in 1956).
Professor Alpers’ career has been
devoted to studying and helping the Fore
people of the Eastern Highlands Province
in Papua New Guinea.
The Fore suffered from kuru, a
devastating and incurable neurological
disease which causes lack of coordination,
body tremors and shaking limbs –
symptoms that worsen as sufferers
progress towards death over a period
of 6–18 months. In the late 1950s, kuru
caused 200 deaths a year.
Professor Alpers helped prove that kuru
was caused by a transmissible infectious
agent and that the mode of transmission
was cannibalism, ritualistically performed by
family members of the recently deceased.
This was of particular consequence
for women and children, as they ate the
infected brains of relatives. Since 1999, he
has used the term ‘transumption’ for this
ritual mortuary practice.
But Professor Alpers said his time
in PNG was much more than simply
researching and treating a group of people
suffering from a strange affliction.
“I’d gone from living a comfortable
existence in Australia and England to being
at the frontier of a society which had only
just come into contact with the outside
world,” he said.
8 Lumen | Summer 2013
“It was an amazing experience. I was
very privileged to be part of a culture
which welcomed me into their lives and
made me feel at home from Day One.”
Professor Alpers used both his medical
and science training to study the cultural,
behavioural, clinical, epidemiological and
biomedical aspects of kuru.
“In many ways, the differences between
the Fore and the Western World couldn’t
have been more vast – and yet, I think the
common humanity that we shared was
just as important as understanding the
differences,” he said.
“To solve what was going on with kuru,
we had to understand the Fore people
and their lifestyle, traditions and culture
– and I think we were able to do that by
living with them for years and taking the
time to fully appreciate them and their
way of life.”
Now based in Curtin University in
Western Australia, Professor Alpers still
makes annual field trips to Papua New
Guinea, where kuru has been effectively
wiped out among the Fore people. The
last patient died in 2009. Kuru lasted until
then only because of its remarkably long
incubation period.
Professor Alpers described his most
recent honours from his alma mater as
“very gratifying”.
“I hadn’t been in Bonython Hall since I
graduated – to be able to get an honorary
degree and give the occasional address
in front of my family and friends was
very gratifying, and I am thankful to be
recognised in this way,” he said.
It was an amazing
experience. I was very
privileged to be part of a
culture which welcomed
me into their lives and
made me feel at home
from Day One.
Above: Professor Alpers AO
at Bonython Hall in September,
where he received his honorary
doctorate and gave the
occasional address.
