Haverford College graduate Dr. Kent Campbell pioneered life-saving programs that reduced malaria cases worldwide, particularly in Africa. These programs included bed nets to keep away disease-ridden mosquitoes.   

Dr. Campbell died Feb. 20 at age 80 following a four-decade career in public health, writes Michael S. Rosenwald for The New York Times. 

He was chief of the malaria branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1981 to 1993. He later worked as an advisor to UNICEF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Malaria cases dropped by half within three years in Zambia after bed nets and newer antimalarial drugs were distributed. That program was expanded to 40 other African countries.

“There’s nothing matching that, which is reflective of how much death malaria caused in Zambia and how powerful bed nets are to decrease transmission,” Dr. Campbell told AllAfrica. “That’s all it really took. It was just remarkable.”

Dr. Campbell joined the C.D.C. in 1972 as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War while in his pediatric residency in Boston.

He investigated Lassa fever in Sierra Leone and Ireland and became ill himself.

Read about Dr. Campbell’s unique trip in an Apollo space capsule in The New York Times.