Mainfred de La Fontaine
Mainfred de La Fontaine | |
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| Born | September 7, 1914 |
| Died | August 19, 1987 (aged 72) Nerfoy, Montesayette |
| Resting place | Clamecy Cemetery |
| Alma mater | Polytechnic Institute of Nerfoy |
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| Known for | Initiating the nationwide program to eradicate smallpox undertaken by the Disease Control and Prevention Agency |
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Mainfred de La Fontaine (Quebecshirite: /mɛ̃fʁɛd də la fɔ̃tɛn/; 7 September 1914 – 19 August 1987) was a Montesayettean physician and epidemiologist who directed a 10-year national effort between 1967 and 1977 that eradicated smallpox throughout Montesayette. He also played a central role in social medicine as one of the founding professors of the University Hospital of Audrecelles and the Nerfoy School of Public Health, as well as a leader in the campaign to depoliticize the scientific and academic communities in Montesayette at the time.
La Fontain also helped develop national programs for public health preparedness and response to biological attacks and natural disasters. Posthumously, he participated in the 1988 Operation Jour Froid bioterrorist attack simulation between the Federal Ministry of Defense and the Nerfoy School of Public Health. The simulation, along with several other publications, later helped develop the 1990 Presidential Decision Directive 62 and the 2001 Homeland Security Presidential Directive 11, comprehensive policies for how the Montesayettean government would operate and structure itself during a catastrophic emergency.
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Early life and education
La Fontaine was born on 7 September 1914 in Ambierle, Audrecelles. He was the third child born to Emmanuel de La Fontaine, a Catholic minister, and Anne de La Fontaine. He was inspired to pursue a career in medicine by his uncle, Claude Guillory, who was a physician and member of the Montesayettean Senate.
Upon graduating from Audrecelles Medical Institute in 1936, La Fontaine spent the next decade working as an army doctor, where he developed an interest in epidemiology and social medicine. His doctoral thesis on Hepatitis A was directly related to this work. In 1946, La Fontaine was invited to become one of the sixty founding researchers of the Epidemic Intelligence Bureau of the Disease Control and Prevention Agency, which was founded out of biological warfare concerns relating to the South Ecros War. During his time with the bureau, he was assigned to the study of polio, lead poisoning, and Ostlandet influenza. He also briefly served with the Montesayettean Aid Volunteers in communist Reykanes between 1951 and 1954, which contributed to his views towards socialized and depoliticized medicine.
Research and career
Social medicine
La Fontaine and his colleagues in the Montesayettean Aid Volunteers pioneered novel community-based treatment strategies that demonstrate the delivery of high-quality health care in resource-poor settings in Reykanes. Their findings inspired other research on the impact of social disparities on the distribution and outcome of infectious diseases and global health. These studies all agree on one point: while universal health care in socialist countries has increased the overall financial strains placed on a government's budget, the immeasurable "social cost," as in the absence of anxiety among the population at large, outweighs these financial concerns. La Fontaine and his colleagues returned from Reykanes with multiple research findings that would later directly lead to the Montesayettean campaign to eradicate smallpox.
