DEATHS of Islands People

Dr Vincent Zigas In Brisbane, Queensland, on March 25 at the age of 63.

Vin Zigas, a specialist doctor in neurology and virology, was the medical worker who revealed the existence of the neurological disease kuru popularly known as laughing sickness among the Fore people of Okapa in the Papua New Guinea Eastern Highlands.

In 1956, while working as a medical officer for the then Aust ralian administration of PNG, he was the first to clinically docu ment the sickness and to initiate research. The project became of wide interest in international medical circles and attracted a team of researchers, including Dr Gajdusek whose work on it won him the 1976 Nobel Prize

for Medicine and Physiology.

Although never as widely

known as Dr Gajdusek, Dr Zigas was recognised as the man who first realised the existence of a puzzling disease and who took steps to do something about it.

Vin Zigas was an outgoing and entertaining man who had the

unusual background of becoming

an Australian citizen after being an officer of the German military forces in World War 11. He was bom in Estonia, one of the Baltic states of Europe, and trained as a doctor in Germany. At the out break of war he became an army medical officer, first with the celebrated Afrika Korps and sub

sequently at Munich Military

Hospital.

Four years after the war he entered Australia under a major

migration scheme sponsored by Australia, and within a few months joined the PNG Depart ment of Health. He established a highly successful career in PNG over a period of more than 20 years before returning to Aust ralia to live in Brisbane.

He was a contributor to medic al and scientific journals. After his initial researches into kuru he spent some time in USA, includ ing a period as Visiting Scientist with the U.S. Government and on post-graduate training in virology. He applied this to his work in PNG on his return. He was a member of the American Academy of Neurology which published the results of his work on the effects of kuru on the central nervous system. An gus Smales.

Mrs Vera Gibson In Labasa on May 4 aged 69.

Mrs Gibson was born in Rakiraki but spent most of her life in Labasa.

In 1938 her late husband built the Grand Eastern Hotel, which she managed until ill-health forc ed her to sell it in 1982. She was involved in the Red Cross and the Girl Guides movement, and was a member of Labasa Hospit al’s board of visitors.