A Bangladesh-based global health research organization was named Wednesday the recipient of the $2 million 2017 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize for its contributions to alleviate human suffering.
The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh — known as icddr,b — was tabbed for its five decades of work to develop “innovative, low-cost health solutions that have resulted in saving millions of lives globally.”
According to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the health organization began in an effort to find treatments for cholera and other diarrheal conditions, but has become “the world’s largest diarrheal hospital treating more than 200,000 patients a year, almost all of whom recover within 36 hours.”
“icddr,b has had a profound impact on health crises and breakthroughs worldwide,” Hilton Foundation President/CEO Peter Laugharn said. “As we seek solutions to bridge global divides, the world can learn a lot from icddr,b — not just about vaccines, but about scientifically researched approaches to public health problems that work.”
The organization will be honored at a ceremony Oct. 11 at the Beverly Hilton. The event will be part of a daylong conference themed “The Future of Humanitarian Action: Bridging Our Divides.”
The research institute becomes the 22nd recipient of the Hilton Prize. Last year’s honoree was The Task Force for Global Health. The prize comes with $2 million in unrestricted funding.
“The prize will help support our current research efforts to move forward our in-house pipeline of new, low-cost products and interventions addressing a wide range of public health problems in developing countries, including severe acute malnutrition and pneumonia in children, tuberculosis and life-threatening maternal hemorrhage during childbirth,” said Dr. John Clemens, executive director of icddr,b.
–City News Service