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BSS-44
ICDDR,B-AWARD(with picture)
Executive director of icddr,b receives Prince Mahidol Award 2018
DHAKA, Feb 10, 2019 (BSS)- Executive Director of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) Professor John D Clemens has received prestigious Prince Mahidol Award 2018 for his public health contribution in developing the oral cholera vaccine and its advancement worldwide.
Professor Jan R Holmgren of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, is the co-winner of the award, which is a leading recognition for public health innovation globally and is named after Prince Mahidol of Songkla who is regarded as the ‘father of modern medicine and public health in Thailand’, said a media release here today.
Prof Clemens and Prof Holmgren, have long been associated with icddr,b and spent over 30 years of their scientific careers creating the solution.
Nominated by a jury board for the award in November last year, they were ceremonially presented in Bangkok, Thailand, last week.
Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand, President of Prince Mahidol Foundation, officially handed over the award for their extraordinary contribution to the introduction of the safe, effective, affordable and internationally licensed oral cholera vaccine (OCV). icddr,b’s Deputy Executive Director Syed Monjurul Islam, Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Thailand Md. Nazmul Quaunine, among other dignitaries, were present at the ceremony held at the Grand Palace in Bangkok.
The OCV was recently administered among the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals (FDMNs) who have taken shelter in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. icddr,b along with its partners pre-emptively administered a total of one million doses of OCV among the Rohingyas who have fled into Bangladesh in order to avoid persecution in neighbouring Myanmar.
It is considered as the world’s second largest OCV campaign in recent history. Public health experts suggest that this might have prevented a potential epidemic of cholera in the Rohingyas.
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