Gerald P. Walsh; Sought Cures for Leprosy, Tuberculosis

Gerald P. Walsh, 65, leader in the fight against leprosy and tuberculosis, died Sunday in Frederick, Md., of brain cancer.

Walsh served as the longtime scientific director of the American Leprosy Foundation. He also helped develop an internationally recognized model for testing TB vaccines and therapies, and wrote more than 150 scientific articles on leprosy and tuberculosis.

In the field of leprosy detection and treatment, Walsh was known for finding leprosy bacteria in wild armadillos in the southern United States. His discovery of the organisms in the soil-rooting animals raised the possibility, though still unproven, that the disease can be spread environmentally as well as through human-to-human contact.