Varanasi, January 25 (IANS). It has been announced to award Padmashree to BHU Professor Shyam Sundar Aggarwal, who made historical contribution in the treatment of Kala-azar. After the announcement of the award, Professor Aggarwal, while talking to IANS, expressed his gratitude to the Government of India.
Two professors from BHU have got a place in the Padma awards announced on the eve of Republic Day, in which the name of Shyam Sundar Aggarwal is also included. Pro. Aggarwal developed a single dose of lipid-based liposomal amphotericin-B in Indian kala-azar treatment, which was recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and adopted in India’s kala-azar control programme.
He successfully tested multi drug therapy for Kala-azar, which has also been approved by WHO. The combination of paremomycin and miltefosine is being used today at primary health centers. Along with this, the credit for the development of an effective drug like Miltefosine and the first test of RK-39 strip test also goes to him.
Speaking to IANS, Shyam Sundar Aggarwal said, “I do not consider myself unique, but I am an ordinary person. I come from Bihar, Muzaffarpur. There was a huge outbreak of Kala-azar. There were lakhs of patients, out of which thousands died. These patients did not have money, and it took 3-4 weeks to detect the disease, which was very expensive. In the 80s, it was difficult to detect this disease. It used to cost 400 to 500 rupees.
I felt I could do something in this field. So we invented a test, which I tested. After this, for the first time in the world, we showed that the diagnosis of Kala-azar and related diseases which used to take weeks and months, started happening in 10 minutes. This was the first step towards this success.
The condition of the medicines used in kala-azar disease was very bad. When 100 patients were treated, only 35-36 patients were cured, out of which 12-15 patients died. At that time the medicine used for the disease had stopped working. At that time we told that only one-third of the patients were getting cured with the medicine. After this, around 1990, the government launched a Kala-azar control program, which was not successful. Then the medicine was changed. I was also a part of the meeting held on that.
After this, many researches were done on the medicines of Kala-azar. In 2002, there was a big research which I was leading. Research was done on about 300 patients, in which 94 percent was accurate, but the medicine was to be taken orally. The medicine had to be taken for a month and it also had its own problems. I have about 38 years of experience in this field.
–IANS
SCH/DKP
