flying bomb in July 1944 during the Second World War. Royal Free disease In 1955 an apparent outbreak of an infectious illness, involving fever and subsequent persisting fatigue along with other symptoms, affected 292 members of staff and forced the hospital's closure between 25 July and 5 October. There was subsequently some debate as to whether the episode was of an infectious cause, or just an example of mass hysteria. The outbreak was later found to have been a notable case in the UK of myalgic encephalomyelitis (chronic fatigue syndrome), and resulted in the coining of the disease's name. Move to Hampstead By the late 1960s the site on Gray's Inn Road had become too cramped, and a modern 12-storey cruciform tower block was built in Pond Street, Hampstead on the site of the former Hampstead General Hospital founded by William Heath Strange. It opened in 1974, and was officially opened by the Queen in 1978 on the Royal Free's 150th anniversary. Meanwhile, the Eastman Dental Hospital took over the whole of the Gray's Inn Road site. The Royal Free was the first hospital in the UK to appoint a consultant in HIV medicine, in 1989. Professor Margaret Johnson, a specialist in thoracic medicine, built the Royal Free Centre for HIV Medicine, which is at the forefront of treatment of HIV-AIDS. The out-patients' centre was opened in 1992 by the actor Sir Ian McKellen and is named after the actor Ian Charleson. MMR vaccine controversy In February 1998, the Royal Free held a press conference to coincide with the publication in The Lancet of a paper by Andrew Wakefield who claimed to have found a possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism. This started a controversy which led to a crisis in public confidence over MMR and a fall in uptake of the vaccine. Wakefield left the medical school in October 2001 and was later struck off the UK medical register by the General Medical Council following an investigation by The Sunday Times newspaper into the MMR issue. Education For a long time, the Royal Free was the only London hospital allowing women to study medicine, forming an association with the London School of Medicine for Women, under which women from the school completed their clinical studies at the hospital, from 1877. Under the Deanship of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, one of the school's founders, it became part of the