Dr. Murphy was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but grew up in Oroville, California, in the family of a general practitioner, who was among the founders of Oroville Hospital. He attended Johns Hopkins University, earning a B.A. and M.A. simultaneously in 1966, focusing on comparative literature, but also studying parasitology at the JHU School of Public Health. He worked summers in the Department of Parasitology at the University of California, Berkeley, coauthoring his first paper with Clarence Weinmann on a filarial parasite of California quail. As a medical student at UCLA, he studied parasitology under Dr. Marietta Voge, and spent the summer of 1968 with Dr. John Kessel surveying villagers and mosquitoes of American Samoa for Wuchereria Bancrofti in the wake of a mass treatment campaign. He was valedictorian of his class at UCLA, speaking on the relation of the Hippocratic Oath & the Oath of Maimonides to health care of the poor. He interned in medicine & pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin. As a commissioned officer in the US Public Health Service, he worked in the Arbovirus Section of the CDC Virology Laboratory, focusing on California encephalitis virus and Venezuelan equine encephalitis studies, as well as long term immunity to yellow fever vaccine. He subsequently worked in the CDC Viral Pathology laboratory of Dr. Frederick Murphy, who had earlier described the electron microscopic morphology of Lassa Fever virus, and later of Ebola virus.

Dr. Kevin Murphy then completed his residency in internal medicine at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, and served his fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at the invitation of Jay Sanford, whose little Sanford Guide Dr. Murphy still carries in his pocket. As an assistant professor of medicine there, Dr. Murphy’s research focused on herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus, St. Louis encephalitis and HIV infections. In Dallas, he was active in reforming the care of Asian and African refugees, supporting the work of the Dallas County Health Department and developing compassionate & effective care of patients with AIDS. In 1983, he entered private practice in Dallas, as a clinical associate professor of medicine. Since 1999, Dr. Murphy has been a consultant at Sierra Infectious Diseases in Reno. He is currently a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Nevada Reno School of Medicine and medical advisor to the Washoe County Health District. He is the author of numerous abstracts, articles and chapters on HIV disease, central nervous system infections, viral diseases, parasitology and antibiotic management. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians & the Infectious Disease Society of America, and fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, London. He is married with 2 somewhat adult children, one cat and a peanut-loving scrub jay named “Wriggles”.