Transcript, 1998

File — Box: DC 008, Folder: FL 894

Identifier: HHC631

Staff Only

Scope and Content

From the Collection: This interview with Dr. Bruce Tempest (1935- ) of Gallup, New Mexico, focuses on his thirty years' service in the United States Indian Health Service, almost all that time spent on the Navajo Indian reservation. After three-year tenure at Tuba City, Arizona, Dr. Tempest moved to the Indian Hospital at Gallup, New Mexico, and practiced there until his retirement in 1996. An infectious disease specialist, Dr. Tempest was the key figure in the identification of Hantavirus and the fight against the Hantavirus outbreak in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest in 1993. Among the subjects discussed in this interview are Dr. Tempest's personal and professional backgrounds; the Indian Health Service; infectious disease among the Navajo, particularly tuberculosis, diabetes, plague, pneumonias, and diphtheria; the Hantavirus outbreak of 1993; the cooperation among Indian Health Service, New Mexico public health personnel, and Centers for Disease Control physicians and other health care professionals.