How Dilip Mahalanabis, to be awarded Padma Vibhushan posthumously, saved millions of lives with ORS

Dr Dilip Mahalanabis’ loss left a huge void in India. He passed away in October last. He will be awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award, for pioneering the use of ORS. On the eve of the 74th Republic Day, the government Mahalanabis’ efforts led to widespread use of oral rehydration system, or ORS, which is “estimated to have saved over five crore lives globally”. Mahalanabis gained national fame after saving umpteen lives through his oral rehydration solution during an outbreak of cholera while serving in a refugee camp at Bangaon in West Bengal during the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh. Oral rehydration therapy is a solution used to prevent and treat dehydration. Let’s take a closer look at Mahalanabis’ life and career: Life and career As per Hindustan Times, Mahalanabis was born in undivided Bengal’s Kishoreganj in 1934. Mahalanabis joined Calcutta Medical College’s paediatric department as an intern after graduating from it in 1958. As per the report, the establishment of Britain’s National Health Service in the 1950s, for which he was selected, afforded him the chance to study medicine in England. He was the first Indian selected as registrar of London’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital after acquiring degrees in London and Edinburgh. He joined the Johns Hopkins University International Centre for Medical Research and Training in Kolkata in the 1960s, where he carried out research in oral rehydration therapy, as per Indian Express. 1971 war According to the WHO, diarrhoeal diseases like cholera are among the leading causes of mortality in infants and young children in many developing countries, where patients pass away from dehydration. ORS – comprising water, glucose and salts – is a simple and cost-effective method of preventing this. Mahalanabis’ greatest feat came during the 1971 war when millions crossed over to India. As per The Times of India, when the Bongaon refugee camp was hit by a cholera epidemic, Mahalanabis, even before ORS was given the green light for treatment, introduced it. While he took flak for his decision, the results were undeniable – mortality dropped from 30 per cent to a mere three percent. ORS would later be called the greatest discovery of the 20th Century by The Lancet. Hindustan Times quoted him recounting his experiences to the WHO in 2009: “There were many deaths from cholera, many horror stories. When I arrived, I was really taken aback. There were two rooms in the hospital in Bangaon that were filled with severely ill cholera patients lying on the floor. In order to treat these people with IV saline, you literally had to kneel down in their faeces and their vomit. Within 48 hours of arriving there, I realized we were losing the battle because there was not enough IV saline and only twomembers of my team were trained to give the fluids.” “I didn’t have the privilege of consulting knowledgeable people at that time. I had to decide on my own what to do. I had no choice but to go ahead and use ORS to the maximum, hoping for the best. I was confident that it could work, but not necessarily in these circumstances. I also feared that if it didn’t work, we would have no more options. It was a huge relief when we saw that it really did work,” he added.

He never patented his Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS).

As per Indian Express, he worked in cholera control for WHO in Afghanistan, Egypt and Yemen from 1975 to 1979. During the 1980s, he worked as a WHO consultant on research on the management of bacterial diseases. As per Bengali Tribune, Mahalanabis was in 1990 posted as a clinical research officer at Dhaka’s International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research. It was a position in which he performed efficiently for several years, as per the report. Honours Dilip Mahalanabis has been globally recognised for his extraordinary work including by prestigious organisations like the WHO. As per The Times of India, Mahalanabis was bestowed the Pollin prize in 2002 by the University of Columbia and Cornell, and in 2006 awarded the Thai government’s Prince Mahidol Award for contributing to medical science. “Mahalanabis was a fine doctor, a scientist, and a humble and kind human being who believed in giving back,” Apura Ghosh, director, Institute of Child Health (ICH), Kolkata, told The Times of India. Ghosh added that Mahalanabis was a pioneer in the treatment of cholera and enteric diseases through low-cost methods. “His contributions will forever be remembered,” Ghosh said. A couple of years ago, he donated his life’s savings of Rs 1 crore to ICH where he had first began as a paediatrician, as per the report. “His death marks the end of an era. Oral rehydration is still the mainstay of treatment for diarrhoeal diseases in children. Before the use of ORT, the only treatment was intravenous fluid infusion, which was neither cost-effective nor easy. Due to Dr Mahalanabis’s persistent efforts, ORT was made a household name,”  Dr Sampada Tambolkar, professor of paediatrics at Dr D Y Patil medical college, Pune, told Indian Express. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.