Dilip Mahalanabis (1934-2022) was an Indian paediatrician, scientist, and public well being specialist. He’s recognized for creating oral rehydration resolution (ORS) to treatment Diarrhea. In 2022, he died on the age of 87 after affected by a lung an infection.
Wiki/Biography
Dilip Mahalanabis was born on 12 November 1934 (age 87 years; on the time of dying) in Kishoreganj, Bengal Province, British India (now Dhaka Division, Bangladesh). In 1958, he accomplished his commencement as a paediatrician on the Calcutta Medical School in Kolkata. He did a Diploma in Little one Well being (DCH) on the Nationwide Well being Service (NHS) within the UK. Later, he earned a Membership of the Royal Schools of Physicians of the UK (MRCP(UK)), which is a post-graduate medical diploma within the UK. He made historical past by changing into the primary Indian to be appointed because the registrar of London’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Dilip Mahalanabis in his younger age
Bodily Look
Peak (approx.): 5′ 8″
Hair Color: Salt & Pepper
Eye Color: Black
Household
Mother and father & Siblings
There’s not a lot details about his dad and mom and siblings.
Spouse
He was married to Jayanti Mahalanabis, who died on 9 July 2021.

Dilip Mahalanabis with Jayanti Mahalanabis
Profession
Oral Rehydration Remedy (ORT)
In the course of the Sixties, he labored on the Johns Hopkins College Worldwide Centre for Medical Analysis and Coaching in Kolkata, focusing his analysis efforts on oral rehydration remedy. In the course of the Bangladesh Struggle of Independence in 1971, a big refugee disaster emerged, with many refugees searching for shelter in India. Cholera turned a serious reason for dying amongst these refugees, with a excessive case fatality price (CFR) of 30%. To help the federal government and non-governmental organizations in addressing this disaster, the JH-CMRT despatched its skilled and paramedical employees to the refugee camps. Dilip Mahalanabis and his staff operated alongside the border of India and East Pakistan, establishing their therapy centre in Bongaon to supply important medical care. Mahalanabis and his staff believed, primarily based on the analysis obtainable at the moment, that oral rehydration remedy alone may successfully forestall deadly dehydration within the early phases of cholera an infection. He made an oral rehydration resolution (ORS), which consisted of 22g glucose, 3.5g sodium chloride, and a pair of.5g sodium hydrogen carbonate per litre of water and was served to sufferers in cups. Over 8 weeks, they handled 3700 sufferers, and solely 135 died (a 3.6% fatality price), a big drop from the sooner 30% price. In a separate tent, the speed was even decrease at 1%. At the moment, Dr Dhiman Barua, the pinnacle of the bacterial ailments unit of the WHO, supported his therapy at WHO and UNICEF after visiting Dilip at his camp in Bongaon; nonetheless, different scientists have been sceptical about his discovery. Journals rejected his paper, taking 7 extra years for ORT (Oral Rehydration Remedy) acceptance. He didn’t patent his ORS method.
Different Works
From 1975 to 1979, he served in WHO’s cholera unit in Afghanistan, Egypt, and Yemen. Within the Nineteen Eighties, he helped the WHO by giving recommendation about bacterial ailments. Within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, he was appointed as a medical officer within the Diarrheal Illness Management Programme of the WHO. In 1990, he turned a medical analysis officer on the Worldwide Centre for Diarrhoeal Illness Analysis (ICDDR, B), Bangladesh. Later, he was promoted to the Director of Medical Analysis at ICDDR. In 2004, he and Dr. Nathaniel Pierce have been collaborating on a greater model of ORS. This improved model aimed to be more practical in stopping dehydration brought on by varied varieties of diarrhoea. It additionally had the potential to scale back the quantity of stool produced.
Awards, Honours, Achievements
- 1994: Elected a overseas member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
- 2002: The primary Pollin Prize in Pediatric Analysis
- 2006: Prince Mahidol Prize
- 2023: Padma Vibhushan (posthumous)
Demise
On 16 October 2022, he died after affected by a lung an infection and different age-related illnesses at a non-public hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal.
Info/Trivia
- He’s thought of the daddy of ORS.
- In August 2017, he donated his life financial savings of Rs 1 crore to the Institute of Little one Well being in Kolkata.
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