Paul Fiset

Early life and education Born in Quebec, Fiset attended high school at the Collège François-de-Laval (formerly called the Petit Séminaire de Québec) in Quebec City. He earned his bachelor's degree in humanities and general sciences from Laval University in 1944 and his Doctor of Medicine degree there in 1949.

Fiset served the Commission on Rickettsial Diseases of the U.S. Armed Forces Epidemiological Board from 1965 to 1976. He was a consultant to the Surgeon General of the United States, for which he received the Outstanding Civilian Service Award in 1972.

Research

In 1951, Fiset and others wrote in the Canadian Medical Association Journal of their research into three cases of bronchopulmonary candidosis. While working on his doctorate in virology at Clare College, Cambridge University between 1953 and 1956, Fiset worked to decode the structure of Coxiella burnetii, the bacteria causing Q fever, with Michael Stoker. The infection typically presents symptoms such as high fever, headaches, and severe muscle aches and pains which can last for several weeks. Theodore Woodward, writing for the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, said that an "important and better understanding of Q fever resulted from the work of Dr. Paul Fiset, who showed that Q fever Rickettsiae could wear several faces, called Phase I and Phase II, a change that was important for vaccine development and accurate diagnosis". In 1978, he collaborated in the research of a Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever case resulting from a blood transfusion. As reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the peer-reviewed study said the recipient's diagnosis was confirmed "by positive serologic reactions and isolation of Rickettsia rickettsii from blood after inoculation in animals and tissue culture".

Following a 1979 outbreak of Q fever in California, Fiset conducted a two-year serological testing program at the National Institutes of Health Animal Center.

Personal life In the 1960s to 1980s, Fiset made his home in Hampton, Maryland, with his wife, Marie Lorraine Fiset ( Gosselin), whom he married in 1953 while both were studying microbiology at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France. They had a son, Peter, and two daughters, Lauren and Clare. He is interred at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens in Timonium, Maryland.

Honors and recognition 1972, Outstanding Civilian Service Award, U.S. Army His most cited article is: Stoker MG, Fiset P. "Phase variation of the Nine Mile and other strains of Rickettsia burneti". Canadian Journal of Microbiology. (May 1956) vol.2, number 3, pp. 310–21. According to Google Scholar, it has been cited 210 times as of May 2021. Among his other published writings are: "Phase variation of Rickettsia (Coxiella) burneti: Study of the antibody response in guinea pigs and rabbits" (1957) "Purification of Psittacosis Agent with Anion Exchange Cellulose–'Ecteola'", Nature (1963) "Interaction of Rickettsiae and Phagocytic Host Cells", The Journal of Immunology (October 1, 1967) "Vaccination against Q fever", 1st International Conference on Vaccines against Viral and Rickettsial Diseases of Man (1967) "The antibody response to antigens to Coxiella burnetii" (1968) "Rickettsiae and Rickettsial Diseases" (1968) "A microagglutination technique for detection and measurement of rickettsial antibodies" (1969) "An antigenic comparison of strains of Coxiella burnetii" (1971) "Immunologic evidence of human fetal infection with Coxiella burnetii" (1975)