Indian doctor gets prestigious Thai royal award

Bangkok, Feb 1: An Indian doctor has received the Prince MahidolAward 2006 for his pioneering concept of oral rehydration therapy (ORT)in controlling diarrhoea, one of the biggest killer diseases.

Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej conferred the Prince MahidolAward, a Thai royal honour, on Director of Kolkata-based Society forApplied Studies Dilip Mahalanabis and three other public health expertsand scientists at a ceremony marked by traditional pageantry in thehistoric Grand Palace here last evening.

Dr Mahalanabis' public health work, three decades ago in refugeecamps in West Bengal during the Bangladesh Liberation War, demonstratedto a sceptical scientific community that a simple solution of salt andsugar was a highly effective treatment for diarrhoea.

His application of oral rehydration therapy (ORT) among the morethan 300,000 inmates was the first large-scale field application ofwhat has since become one of the most effective public health remedies.

It helped slash diarrhoea-induced mortality rates in the refugeecamps to three per cent from a high 20 to 30 per cent using thenprevalent intravenous fluid therapy.

Dr Mahalanabis began his work on ORT in 1966 as a researcher forJohn Hopkins University International Center for Medical Research andTraining in Kolkata.

Also honoured with the 50,000 US dollar-award named after thefather of the Thai king who was also a public health professional, werethe experts who scientifically established and tested the validity ofORT in the 1960s and 1970s.

Stanley G. Schultz, Dean of the University of Texas Medical Schoolin Houston, Texas, United States, demonstrated in the 1960s the closelink between glucose and sodium absorption in the small intestine.

This formed the scientific basis for the development of oralrehydration solution (ORS) which now saves an estimated three millionlives in the developing world every year. Five hundred million ORTpacks are used annually in over 60 developing countries.

David R Nalin, former director of Vaccine Scientific Affairs,Merck Vaccine Division, Merck and Co. Inc., Pensylvania, United Statesand Richard A. Cash, Harvard University School of Public Health,Boston, United States, together successfully tested the efficacy of ORSwhile working in the 1960s in the Pakistan-SEATO Cholera ResearchLaboratory in Dhaka in the then East Pakistan.

The four were chosen from among 59 candidates from 29 countriesconsidered for the annual Prince Mahidol Award instituted in 1992 tohonour individual(s) or institution(s) who have made outstanding andexemplary contributions to the advancement of medicine and publichealth around the world.

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