After graduating, Breman first worked for the CDC in Michigan, where he led the response to the country's, at the time, worst botulism outbreak.[5][6] He was later moved to Guinea to support efforts on smallpox eradication.[3] In early 1976, he returned to Michigan to settle with his family.[7] However, in October, the CDC asked him to investigate a viral outbreak in Zaire.[7] There, he was part of the team which discovered Ebola and responded to the first Ebola pandemic in the country.[3][2][7] The outbreak was so severe that the pilots that dropped them off in the remote area of the epidemic did not expect to see them return alive.[2] The team concluded that the disease was transmitted from close contact with infected body fluids and that a rural hospital that used unsterilized needles had propagated the disease.[1] He was working for the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva in 1980, when smallpox was officially declared eradicated.[2][8] At the WHO he also oversaw research on mpox.[3]
Breman's first academic paper was published in 1969; his final paper was published in October 2023. As of 2018, Breman had published over 195 scientific articles and book chapters.[4] He was also working on a textbook, The Principles and Practice of Disease Eradication, and a memoir in 2023.[2]
Personal life and death
Breman and his wife, Vicki, had two children.[5] He was Jewish.[1]
Joel Breman died from kidney cancer in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on April 6, 2024, at age 87.[1] Per his wishes, he had a funeral which was "more celebratory than mournful". The procession of his body out of the synagogue featured musicians playing Amazing Grace on tuba, drum, trumpet, clarinet, and accordion.[2]
^ abcdeKilmarx, Peter (April 9, 2024). "Memory of Joel Breman". Fogarty International Center. Archived from the original on April 23, 2024. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
^ abcdBreman, Joel (September 11, 2018). "Joel Breman, MD, DTPH, FASTM". American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Archived from the original on December 1, 2023. Retrieved April 25, 2024.