John Alsop

Biographical Timeline

• Born April 19, 1931 in Alvechurch, Worcestershire, son of a brickyard manager.
• 1954 – Graduated MB ChB, Manchester University.
• 1954–1956 – Conscripted as a medical officer, British Army.
• 1956–1960 – Worked in Warwick and Birmingham Hospitals.
• 1959 – Identified Coxsackie group A type 16 in a Birmingham epidemic and coined the term “hand-foot-and-mouth” disease.
• 1960–1974 – Country general practitioner in Alcester, Warwickshire
• 1961 – Published investigation of ringworm infection in a cucumber greenhouse, isolating Microsporum gypseum and confirms, for the first time, that the organism can cause infection when contracted directly from soil.
• 1974 – Migrated with family to Mandurah, Western Australia
• 1995 – Retired from general practice

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Key Medical Contributions

Hand-foot-and-mouth disease (1959–1960)

June, 1959: Alsop reviewed 24 cases during a exanthem epidemic in Birmingham. Alsop noted that these patients were seen in ‘every social class in every grade of residential area, from the best of Solihull to the worst of Smethwick’.

Clinical features of the exanthem noted as being ‘mild’, with painful stomatitis and a vesicular rash limited to hands and feet. Spontaneous resolution within ~1 week, largely affecting children <4 years.

During house visits to farmers in his local area, Alsop noted a similarity between the features of the human epidemic and the concurrent ‘foot and mouth’ disease in cows. He recalls, ‘The lesions on the cows usually resembled those of the patients, apart from their distribution. The name ‘hand-foot-and-mouth’ seemed appropriate and just rolled off the tongue’

With colleagues T. H. Flewett and J. R. Foster, isolated Coxsackievirus type A16 from vesicular fluid, and adopted the descriptive name “hand-foot-and-mouth”.

In the BMJ publication Alsop noted similarity to a Toronto 1958 outbreak published by Robinson et al (1958) in which Coxsackievirus A was isolated (Robinson et al.).

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Ringworm infection in a cucumber greenhouse (1960–1961)

August 1960 – As a GP in Alcester, Alsop was consulted by greenhouse workers with “cucumber rash”. Exposure linked to the clearing of old cucumber plants on August 11–12. In total there were 22 cases (including secondary household and playground spread).

Outbreak features: lesions resembling ringworm predominantly on the arms, and also face, breasts and trunk.

Mycology: Microsporum gypsum isolated from skin scrapings and (critically) grown from soil samples. M. gypseum had previously not been regarded as a prominent cause of ringworm. This was the first time that the fungus was grown from both patients and the soil, demonstrating that the infection was contracted from the soil itself.

Treatment/outcome: lesions self-limited (~5–6 weeks untreated) and Whitfield’s ointment was effective in treated cases.

Alsop recollects that he thought it unusual that the trunks and breasts were prominently affected in the workers, until the patients told him that the conditions of the greenhouse were so warm and humid that they worked stripped to the waist.

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Major Publications

• Alsop J, Flewett TH, Foster JR. “Hand-foot-and-mouth disease” in Birmingham in 1959. Br Med J. 1960 Dec 10;2(5214):1708-11.
• Alsop J, Prior AP. Ringworm infection in a cucumber greenhouse. Br Med J. 1961 Apr 15;1(5232):1081-3.

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References

Biography

• Biography and interview-derived details (including timeline and quotations): author discussions with Alsop, Feb 2026.

Eponymous terms

• Robinson CR, Doane FW, Rhodes AJ. Report of an outbreak of febrile illness with pharyngeal lesions and exanthem: Toronto, summer 1957; isolation of group A Coxsackie virus. Can Med Assoc J. 1958 Oct 15;79(8):615-21.