Karl Johnson - whirling disease warrior

by Evelyn Boswell

2/28/96 with 8/8/97 additions. BOZEMAN - -Karl Johnson has almost had enough of viruses and diseases.

After decades of chasing down viruses, some in the depths of Panama and Bolivia, the doctor who named the Ebola virus wants to tie more flies and catch more fish. The man who moved to Montana in 1987, only to join the war against whirling disease and hantavirus, is tired of watching his drift boat stand idle in the driveway.

Johnson wants to ski more. He wants to travel for fun instead of business.

The man described in "The Hot Zone" wants to do what he tried to do 12 years ago when he left government service after nearly 30 years with the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control.

Johnson wants to retire.

"I really look forward to pulling back from some of it. I don't think I can sustain this kind of pace -- or should," Johnson, 66, said recently from his Bozeman home.

A grandfather of eight, Johnson described himself as a dinosaur in today's laboratories. And field work is for younger scientists, he insisted.

"I don't have the reserve of energy that I well remember you damn well had to have to work in any significant -- more than a day or two -- place that a new disease might break out," Johnson said.

Others might disagree with his analysis.

"He's been a real leader in organizing and presenting information that helped people to understand both what whirling disease is and what needs to be done in the research and development aspect of the disease," said Stuart Knapp, professor of parasitology at Montana State University-Bozeman.

C.J. Peters of the special pathogens branch of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta said Johnson's reputation in the field of viruses is still "very high."

Johnson IS slowing down some. He and his wife, Merle, are in the process of closing down the consulting business they opened after moving to Big Sky in 1987. They're talking about life after whirling disease.

"It's sort of a convergence of events," Johnson explained. "We are not getting any younger. It gets harder to keep doing that kind of work where you have to read like crazy, talk to people, travel a fair amount. We just sort of decided it was time to get that phase behind us and try to retire."

Before he can retire completely, though, Johnson wants to do what he can about the disease that was discovered in Montana in December 1994. Johnson serves on the Governor's task force for whirling disease in Montana. The adjunct professor at MSU-Bozeman is one of five founders of the Bozeman-based Whirling Disease Foundation.

His biggest concern now is not retiring, but whirling disease, Johnson said.

"Since whirling disease, I have fished less and worried about fish a lot more," Johnson said. "... My wife says I'm obsessed with this stupid fish thing."

"You have to talk about B.W. and A.W." continued Johnson, who knew as a kid in New Jersey that he wanted to live and fish in Montana. "Before Whirling (B.W.), I'm sure I fished an average of once every 10 days or so. Last summer, I think I went maybe four times."

Johnson sees no quick or cheap solution to Montana's whirling disease problem, and predicted, "I think we are all very much afraid that the next five years will likely, if anything, be filled with more bad news. More rivers (in Montana) will be infected and impacted."

At the moment, rivers like the Yellowstone, Gallatin, Missouri and Bitterroot are free of whirling disease, but Johnson is worried about the consequences if they become infected. Those rivers have a much higher ratio of rainbow or cutthroat trout than brown. (*As of August 1997, whirling disease had been identified in a tributary of the Yellowstone River and in the Missouri River. The disease had not yet been identified in the Gallatin or Bitterroot.)

"Those would really be total disasters if the rainbow or cutthroat were infected there," he said. "... We need to get going rather than sit and wait until the sky falls."

At the same time, Johnson wants people to know that the Madison River is still good fishing with abundant brown trout. Brown trout are generally resistant to whirling disease, although they're infected by the parasites associated with it.

The best hope for the next five to 10 years appears to be searching for -- and hopefully finding -- a wild strain of rainbow or cutthroat trout that resists the disease, Johnson continued.

"I think there's a consensus that that's the first thing to work on," Johnson said.

At the rate he's going, Johnson won't be able to retire any time soon.

"At the moment, I have no idea what the end is," Johnson commented. "My short-term goals are to try and have the Whirling Disease Foundation really functioning, raising enough money everywhere to be serious contributers to the research effort in Montana and wherever else."

He'd also like to see a "wet lab" up and running so Montana will have its own laboratory for studying whirling disease. He's very interested in seeing research programs on whirling disease developed at MSU and the University of Montana. (A "wet lab," the Wild Trout Research Lab, was begun at MSU in 1996 and all equipment was up and running as of May 1997.)

When all that's finished, Johnson said he is looking forward to more traveling and fishing.

"Hopefully, in Montana," he added.

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