World Food Prize Ambassador Quinn
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THE ARCHIVE OF AMBASSADOR KENNETH M. QUINN
FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE MEKONG
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Contracting Hepatitis E

106/4/95

Amb. Quinn recounts how his consuming a particular beverage during a trip to Vietnam in the mid-1990s led to him developing a sickness that no one at the State Department could diagnose. Eventually, the Center for Disease Control performed an analysis which identified him as suffering from Hepatitis E, a malady that no one had ever heard of. It turned out that he was only about the tenth person to ever bring the sickness back to the United States, and the first person to do so from Asia. The disease had a long recovery period, during which he suffered from significantly debilitated intellectual and physical capabilities. This was another of a series of medical issues that highlighted his Foreign Service career from its very beginning through retirement.

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