Dilip Mahalanabis, whose Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) saved numerous lives during the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh, passed away in Kolkata on Sunday, a local media report said.
The doctor was 88 years old when he breathed his last. He used ORS for the first time while treating millions of Bangladeshi refugees in camps near Bangaon in West Bengal in the 1970s.
Achievements of Dilip Mahalanabis
Mahalanabis cured numerous people suffering from cholera with this ORS and it proved to be a life-giving formula, Bangladesh Live News stated citing a report published in the Bangla Tribune newspaper.
Dilip Mahalanabis has been globally recognised for his extraordinary work. Several international organisations, including the World Health Organisation, have also recognised his work, which has spanned over the years.
However, he never took out a patent for his invention of Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS), which saved uncountable lives.
In 1990, he was also posted as a clinical research officer at the famous ICDDRB in Dhaka, a position he performed efficiently for several years, Bangladesh Live News reported, citing the Bengali Tribune newspaper.
For the first time after several years of sustained efforts, a resolution has been tabled in the US House of Representatives recently, declaring Pakistan Army's action against Bengalis and Hindus in 1971 during the Liberation War of Bangladesh as a "genocide" and "crime against humanity".
Bangladesh Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque last month called the greater push for international recognition of genocide carried out on unarmed Bangalees, Bangladesh News Agency reported.
Haque said international recognition of the genocide of 1971 could not be realized 51 years after independence. But Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government declared March 25 as National Genocide
About Dilip Mahalanabis and the ORS formula:
Dr Mahalanabis was born on November 12, 1934 in West Bengal. He finished his education in Kolkata and London before joining the Johns Hopkins University International Centre for Medical Research and Training in Kolkata.
In 1971, during the war, because of sanitation and water issues, many people faced cholera and diarrhoea. Dr. Mahalanabis's research on mixing salt and sugar helped in increasing water absorption by the body, as his team started working on the storage of glucose and salt on a larger scale.
The ORS formula was used per litre, with 22 gm of glucose, 3.5 gm of sodium chloride, and 2.5 gm of sodium bicarbonate.As a result, the fatality rate in Dr. Mahalanabis' camp depreciated to three percent compared to other camps.
(With Agency Inputs)
