Burkitt, Denis Parsons (1911- )

British surgeon who first described the childhood tumour named after him, Burkitt's lymphoma. He also pioneered the trend towards high-fibre diets. Burkitt was born in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, and educated at Dublin and Edinburgh. He joined the Colonial Service 1946 and worked for the Ministry of Health in Kampala, Uganda. In 1957 in Kampala, Burkitt first observed the lymphoma that typically affects the face and jaw, causing several swellings. He undertook a 15,000-km/9,300-mi safari with two other doctors, and discovered that Burkitt's disease is commonest in areas where malaria is endemic. It is also associated with the presence of antibodies to the Epstein-Barr virus. Burkitt also became convinced that a diet high in roughage prevents many ailments, such as appendicitis and cancer of the bowel, that are common in the West but rarely encountered among the African peoples, for example.