Brian Greenwood

Sir Brian Mellor Greenwood, CBE, FRCP, FRS (born 1938) is a British physician, biomedical research scientist, academic, and recipient of the first Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize.

Greenwood is the Manson Professor of Clinical Tropical Medicine, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.[1]

Malaria research and mitigation

Greenwood's career has focused on mitigating the effects of malaria and research.[1] In his ten years experience working in Nigeria, and his fifteen years as the head of the Medical Research Council Laboratories in the Gambia, his main research interests were malaria and infections caused by capsulated bacteria such as the meningococcus (Neissera meningitidis).[2]

Malaria's stubborn resistance to control and treatment has been demonstrated in his West African clinical experience.[3] Setbacks in a series of promising drug treatments have proven frustrating.[4]

Although successes in research for a reliable vaccine have continued to prove elusive, Dr. Greenwood has also persisted in promoting a simpler preventive approach. He has been in the forefront of those who are encouraging the use of chemically treated mosquito nets to shield sleeping villagers from attack by the malaria-infected insects.[5]

Greenwood was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to malaria research in Africa.[6]

Honours

Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize

The Japanese Government established the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize in July 2006 as a new international medical research and services award. The announcement of tentative plans for the prize were timed to mark the official visit to by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to Africa in May 2006. The announcement also marked the 80th anniversary of Dr. Noguchi’s death.[11] The Prize aims to honour individuals with outstanding achievements in combating various infectious diseases in Africa or in establishing innovative medical service systems.[12]

The inaugural presentation ceremony and the initial laureate lectures coincide with the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), which was held in Yokohama in late April 2008.[13] This year's conference venue was moved from Tokyo to Yokohama as another way of honoring the man after whom the prize was named. In 1899, Dr. Noguchi worked at the Yokohama Port Quarantine Office as an assistant quarantine doctor.[14]

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda made the actual award presentation; and the Emperor and Empress were present at the 2008 ceremony along with a large number of African heads of state.[15]

Greenwood was honored in the Medical Research category; and his announced laureate lecture topic was "Malaria elimination – Is it possible?"[16]

The first awards of this international prize—consisting of a citation, a medal and an honorarium of 100 million yen (US$843,668) were only intended to be the first in a continuing series; and subsequently the Prize is expected to be awarded every five years.[17] The prize as been made possible through a combination of government funding and private donations.[18]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Greenwood, Brian. "Editorial: Treating Malaria in Africa," British Medical Journal - BMJ 2004;328:534-535 (6 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7439.534.
  2. ↑ Dawood, Richard M. (2003). Travellers' Health: How to Stay Healthy Abroad, p. 110.
  3. ↑ Greenwood, Brian M. (1992). "Malaria chemoprophylaxis in endemic regions," Malaria: Waiting for the Vaccine, pp. 83-101.
  4. ↑ French, Howard W. "Scientist Says Tests Show New Vaccine May Prevent Malaria," New York Times. September 22, 1994; French, Howard W. "Hope in Africa; Anti-Malarial Vaccine May Be Breakthrough," New York Times. September 15, 1994.
  5. ↑ "Nets Cut Malaria Deaths, Study Says," New York Times. July 16, 1991.
  6. 1 2 The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 60009. p. 2. 31 December 2011.
  7. ↑ RSTMH, Chalmers Medal.
  8. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 50948. p. 15. 12 June 1987. Retrieved 8 May 2010.
  9. 1 2 US/National Institutes of Health: Gorgas Lecture (2003)
  10. ↑ "List of past medal holders". The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
  11. ↑ Japan Science and Technology Agency: " Commemorative Lecture: The First Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize," Science Links Japan web site.
  12. ↑ Rockefeller Foundation: Noguchi Prize, history
  13. ↑ Japan, Cabinet Office: Noguchi Prize, chronology
  14. ↑ Hideyo Noguchi Memorial Museum: Noguchi, life events
  15. ↑ "Mama Miriam receives the Hideyo Noguchi Prize," UZIMA Foundation News. May 29, 2008; "Japan awards Kenyan, Briton new Africa health prize" (Agence France Press). May 28, 2008.
  16. ↑ Japan, Cabinet Office: Noguchi Prize, fact sheet.
  17. ↑ World Health Organization: Noguchi Prize, WHO/AFRO involved
  18. ↑ "Noguchi Africa Prize short by 70% of fund target," Yomiuri Shimbun (Tokyo). March 30, 2008.

References

External links

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